Ron Blackwell, the retired chief economist of the AFL-CIO and pioneer in the labor movement, passed away on Sunday night.

Working people rallied in cities across the country over the weekend to call for an end to policies that attack union members and rig the economy and political system against working families, as the Supreme Court began hearing arguments yesterday in a case that threatens to overturn a decades-old precedent and undercut public workers.

“I typed all day long for T.O. Jones,” said Bonnie Blair, recalling the rainy day in 1968 when she wrote 33 letters from striking sanitation workers to Mayor Henry Loeb of Memphis, Tennessee.

The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' (BCTGM’s) campaign against the outsourcing of North American Nabisco jobs has generated widespread support. From U.S. congressional leaders, university students, union trade and justice activists to American veterans and consumers, the message carried by Nabisco workers across the nation has resonated loud and clear: Stop the global exploitation of workers that is devastating families and communities.

The effort to expand cynically named "right to work" laws says a lot about what is wrong with politics in our country. Disguised as protecting workers, the real goal is to silence workers’ voice, reduce our bargaining power and make our jobs more precarious. It’s about power—social, political and economic power.