“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living,” was one of the mottos made famous by the committed labor organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones . Her words could not be more appropriate on the eve of Workers Memorial Day, observed every year on April 28 in memory of workers who have been killed or injured on the job. The date coincides with the 37th anniversary of the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the government agency that oversees worker safety.

Although official figures show that workplace fatalities have declined since OSHA’s inception, workers still face grave hazards on the job. There were 5,734 fatal workplace injuries in 2005 according to the new AFL-CIO annual study “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” Over the last three decades, more than 500 dedicated AFSCME members were killed on the job.

But there are still some who seem oblivious to OSHA’s crucial mission An April 24 story from The New York Times reports that “[s]ince George W. Bush became president … t]he agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others.” As the AFL-CIO report shows, between 2001 and 2006 numerous OSHA regulations were withdrawn from the regulatory agenda.

The clock on worker safety must not be turned back. This Workers Memorial Day, let us rededicate ourselves to this fight.

President McEntee took AFSCME’s health care message to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, delivering testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in which he said, “Shamefully, 45 million people live with the fear that they or a family member will need care for which they cannot pay.”

Testifying before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, McEntee said the crisis of the uninsured affects everyone—including members of unions who have kept their health insurance after fighting long, hard battles against management seeking to cut benefits.

“It cannot be overstated that the crisis of the uninsured is everyone’s problem, including those of us who have insurance,” McEntee testified. “The elaborate shell game of cost-shifting that is built into our insurance rates to pay for uncompensated care means that each time the number of uninsured rises, so do our premiums.”

McEntee also noted with dismay that many child care providers and home care workers do not receive health benefits as part of their jobs. “It is a travesty when those on the frontlines of providing care to our children, our elderly and our disabled have no health care themselves,” McEntee told Congress.

How would you like to be paid less than 80 cents for every dollar your co-workers get? Wouldn’t you say that’s a pretty unfair deal? Well, that’s exactly what many women across this country experience every day, even though equal pay has been the law since 1963.

In 2006, women earned 77 cents for every dollar a man was paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is why April 24, 2007 marks “Equal Pay Day,” the annual symbolic day on which women’s average wages catch up to men’s from the previous year. This sure is one holiday where there’s nothing to celebrate.

And yet, equal pay is not just a women’s issue. As a matter of fact, the wage gap costs working families $200 billion in lost income a year.

And because pay equity is a problem that affects working families, a big part of the solution lies precisely in unions. Did you know that union women earn 31 percent more in their median weekly earnings than those without a union?

Among unions, AFSCME has been one of the strongest advocates for closing the wage gap. Since the 1970s, its members have been the recipients of more than $1 billion in pay equity adjustments won at the bargaining table, state and local legislatures and through political action.

At 57 percent of AFSCME’s membership, women are critical for our union to continue leading the charge for pay equity. Let’s make sure their hard work is valued accordingly.

Standards such as the 40-hour workweek, plus medical and family leave, define the current American workplace. But they weren’t conceded to workers out of the goodwill of their employers’ hearts. They were fought for and won by generations of workers who refused to give up.

This same fighting spirit fuels the battle of AFSCME members across the country to help workers bargain for a better life for themselves and their families.

Take Nevada, for instance. A bill introduced by the State of Nevada Employees Association (SNEA)/AFSCME Local 4041 to grant collective bargaining rights to state workers just passed a state Assembly committee unanimously. Since local government employees in Nevada already enjoy this right, it is simply a matter of fairness that their state counterparts should do so, too.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, members of Child Care Providers Together CCPT/AFSCME Local 132 of Council 75 recently went before the state Senate Commerce Committee to demand that lawmakers write CCPT’s collective-bargaining rights into law.

Working families are the backbone of the country’s economy. Bargaining for better conditions at the workplace is our hard-earned right. AFSCME is making sure it stays that way.

Big Brother is not only watching. He is governing this country.

Rather than spend this National Library Week focused on the role of libraries in nurturing intellectual freedom and promoting opportunity for all, we are forced to reflect on the serial disrespect the Bush administration has shown librarians trying to protect their patrons’ privacy.

As Senate testimony last week made clear, under powers granted by the Patriot Act, the federal government can—and does—spy on the reading habits of ordinary Americans. Meanwhile, librarians across America are being forced to hand over our confidential records, only to be gagged from ever speaking about it under threat of criminal prosecution.

Shielding governmental treachery by criminalizing dissent is a classic tactic of despots and dictators used throughout history. In his latest blog on Huffington Post, President McEntee excoriates this administration for treating our civil liberties like an expendable luxury rather than the bedrock principle of our democracy.

If there’s one economic figure that under the Bush administration has continued to rise year after year, it’s corporate profits. Meanwhile, salaries remain stagnant. Don’t you think it’s time to take a hard look at how the national income pie is cut and who gets the biggest slice? (Pssst! Here’s a clue: It’s not working families!)

According to the latest report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the U.S. national income paid to wage and salary workers fell from 52.4 percent in 2005 to 51.6 percent last year. At the same time, corporations raked in the highest amount of profits on record, hitting 13.8 percent in 2006.

The report also brings up some interesting facts about federal spending. Of the nearly $2.7 trillion spent by the government in FY 2006, some 21 percent of the budget ($557 billion) went to defense, homeland security and security-related activities. In contrast, social safety net programs like child care assistance and unemployment insurance made up just 9 percent ($250 billion) of the federal budget. Talk about misplaced priorities…

Working families contribute like no other group to the country’s economic well-being. As noted by the AFL-CIO blog, an average worker’s salary is only 15 percent higher than in 1980, despite a 67 percent increase in productivity. Isn’t it time we enjoyed more of the wealth we create?

April 15-21 is National Library Week, a time we come together to celebrate the contributions of libraries, librarians and library workers in our nation’s schools, campuses and communities. As America’s largest union for library workers, this is always a special week for AFSCME. But this year, we’re prouder than a peacock to take this occasion to highlight the achievement of one of our own, Susan Patron.

Patron was a longtime senior librarian at Los Angeles Public Library and member of AFSCME Local 2626 (Council 36). She is also an accomplished author of children’s books. AFSCME ran a full-page advertisement in the April 15 New York Times Book Review to mark National Library Week and to honor Patron for winning this year’s prestigious John Newbery Medal, the highest honor in children’s literature, for her book, “The Higher Power of Lucky.” What an achievement!

Libraries and librarians are more relevant than ever, providing a 24/7 information delivery service. Despite ongoing funding challenges, libraries today are enjoying a golden age in which public, school, college and university library use is on the rise. More than 2 billion items were checked out last year, and librarians serve nearly 1.8 billion visitors annually.

So hats off to sister Patron—and all of the 20,000 dedicated library workers of AFSCME. Our libraries work because you do.

In a move typical of President Bush, he recently placed a right-wing operative who has written that Social Security “should be sent to the slaughterhouse” into a top spot at the Social Security administration. At the same time, Mr. Bush chose a new White House regulatory czar who wants to ease arsenic standards in our drinking water.

In his newest blog on Huffington Post, President McEntee points out how these moves by President Bush are part of a ruthless GOP agenda to eviscerate public services and turn even more government functions over to privateers. President McEntee argues that if the GOP wins the 2008 Presidential and congressional elections, they will roll back our recent gains and advance their reckless agenda for America’s future. “We ignore their plans at our peril,” he warns.

On April 4, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King lost his life in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to support African-American sanitation workers striking for recognition of their AFSCME Local 1733 union. Forty years later, Dr King’s legacy of social justice is carried on by the men and women of AFSCME as they fight for a better life for working families.

This is why our union is helping raise funds to build the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, a four-acre tribute to be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Scheduled for completion in 2008, the project will stand adjacent to the FDR Memorial and in a direct line between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials.

The International Union has already donated $100,000 to help build this dream. We now invite all AFSCME affiliates, members, friends and supporters to contribute to this initiative.

To find out how you can make your own tax-deductible donation, visit the special section of our website or download the contribution form (PDF).

Unions are the best option for workers to get ahead economically. The bipartisan group of U.S. senators co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) understands this and so do working families across the nation. Does your senator support our freedom to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions? See for yourself.

The EFCA was already passed by a vote of 241-185 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now it’s time for the Senate to do its job. You can do your part by sending this letter to your representatives and urge them to vote for this critical piece of legislation.