This week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was the guest at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast, where he explained the importance of the union advantage, both for union members and for all working people.

Working people are taking fewer vacation days and working more. That's the top finding in a new national survey, conducted by polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the AFL-CIO in collaboration with the Economic Policy Institute and the Labor Project for Working Families. In the survey, the majority of America's working people credit labor unions for many of the benefits they receive.

The AFL-CIO demands that the Trump administration defend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that provides work authorization to 800,000 people, preventing workplace exploitation and protecting their freedom to join together in union. DACA holders are members of our families, our unions and our communities who have made positive contributions to our society for many years. We will not allow them to lose their rights and status.

The following is an open letter to the Trump administration from Juan Escalante, a "dreamer":

One of the few 2016 election victories for working families came in the defeat of then-Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio. A broad coalition of working people formed the “Bazta Arpaio” (Basta is Spanish for "enough") campaign—working tirelessly to register and turn out first-time voters. In one weekend before the election, more than 500 union volunteers knocked on over 13,000 doors. One of the volunteers, Rene Cruz, an election volunteer and Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245 organizer and steward shared his experiences on the campaign: “This is the people coming together, and this is what solidarity looks like.”

For thousands of hardworking people in St. Louis, working in restaurant kitchens, retail stores and nursing homes or toiling out in the 90-plus degree heat, their labor earns far less today than it did yesterday.