Tula Connell

Sen. John McCain, meet Joe the plumber. Unlike Samuel Wurzelbacher, Joe’s given name is…Joe.

And, unlike Wurzelbacher, he’s a licensed plumber.

Before she became the first female Labor secretary in 1933, Frances Perkins had seen firsthand the tragedy of Manhattan’s 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Locked in by their employer, 146 mostly young girls died when they couldn’t escape the burning building where they toiled in sweatshop labor. Later, as the New York industrial commissioner, Perkins held employers accountable for workplace safety and health, expanding factory investigations and championing other pro-worker laws, like unemployment insurance.

Now, imagine if Elaine Chao had been there instead.

But the current crisis has long roots. America's working families have been suffering through what is now a generation-long stagnation of wages and rising economic insecurity. Steps must be taken immediately to shore up our flagging economy and provide much-needed assistance to working families.

The issue of race in this presidential campaign is one we talk around, or whisper about, or don't discuss publicly at all. But AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka is taking the issue head on, confronting white union members who not embracing the idea of an African-American becoming president.

They may be party animals when chugging $8,204 worth of booze but, after the hangover is over, the staff at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes back to being their ugly anti-worker selves.

George W. Bush's solution to our nation's economic mess—that his failed policies helped create—is to applaud people who must work three jobs to make ends meet.

Sen. John McCain, meet Joe the plumber. Unlike Samuel Wurzelbacher, Joe’s given name is…Joe.

And, unlike Wurzelbacher, he’s a licensed plumber.

Before she became the first female Labor secretary in 1933, Frances Perkins had seen firsthand the tragedy of Manhattan’s 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Locked in by their employer, 146 mostly young girls died when they couldn’t escape the burning building where they toiled in sweatshop labor. Later, as the New York industrial commissioner, Perkins held employers accountable for workplace safety and health, expanding factory investigations and championing other pro-worker laws, like unemployment insurance.

Now, imagine if Elaine Chao had been there instead.

But the current crisis has long roots. America's working families have been suffering through what is now a generation-long stagnation of wages and rising economic insecurity. Steps must be taken immediately to shore up our flagging economy and provide much-needed assistance to working families.

The issue of race in this presidential campaign is one we talk around, or whisper about, or don't discuss publicly at all. But AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka is taking the issue head on, confronting white union members who not embracing the idea of an African-American becoming president.

They may be party animals when chugging $8,204 worth of booze but, after the hangover is over, the staff at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes back to being their ugly anti-worker selves.

George W. Bush's solution to our nation's economic mess—that his failed policies helped create—is to applaud people who must work three jobs to make ends meet.

Every day, most of us go to work and then come home. Next day: Rinse, repeat.

But some U.S. workers go to work and never come home.

In April 2005, Donald Wilcher Smith was one of them. The 22-year-old central Texas man was electrocuted at the Sanderson Farms processing plant.