Did you know that Citigroup CEO Vikram S. Pandit raked in a sweet $38 million in total compensation last year while running his company to the ground? Let’s not forget that Citigroup has already received $45 billion in federal bailout funds. It isn’t a coincidence that AFSCME has made repeated calls for more accountability at the company.

Or what about FedEx Corp. CEO Frederick Smith, who earned more than $10 million in total compensation in 2008? Smith, by the way, is an active opponent of unionization for his employees. While he gets a more than generous salary, FedEx Ground classifies its drivers as independent contractors so it doesn’t have to provide them with basic benefits such as health care coverage.

Despite the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, companies continue to reward CEOs for poor performance. Haven’t these people learned their lesson? See for yourself at the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Executive PayWatch website which documents these and other outrageous examples of CEO behavior.

And while you’re at it, make sure to visit the special section on companies that lobby against their workers’ right to form a union. Also, click on the link on pay practices at other companies that have received taxpayer assistance.

You’re bound to be (unpleasantly) surprised, but this is also why AFSCME has taken the lead in the fight against corporate greed and protecting workers’ pensions. Learn more about AFSCME’s shareholder activism here.

This afternoon, the U.S. Senate passed President Obama’s budget by a vote of 53 to 43. The budget resolution had easily passed in the House earlier in the day by a margin of 233 to 193.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee applauded the action by Congress which underscores President Obama’s first 100 days in office:

“This budget marks another important step on the road to economic recovery; one that paves the way for health care for all. Combined with the passage of President Obama’s jobs and economic recovery bill, the expansion of health care for children and the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, this budget shows the enormous progress we have made in changing the direction of our nation for the better.”

Today is Equal Pay Day, when workers across the country redouble their efforts to make sure women are paid equally for the same work done by men. This day, April 28, was chosen because it represents how far into the year a woman must work to earn the same pay as a man earned, on average, last year.

James Parks at the AFL-CIO Now blog has more:

Equal Pay Day 2009 comes at an exciting time for those who support equal pay for women. President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law on Jan. 29 and established a White House Council on Women and Girls in March. Yet more than 45 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed, women in the United States still earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns—even with similar education, skills and experience—and African American and Hispanic women earn even less.

Read the full post.

All too often we hear about Americans being killed and injured at the workplace. Nearly 5,680 workers on average die on the job each year. In the last 30 years, 500 AFSCME members have been killed on the job.

Every worker who is killed or injured under these circumstances serves as a constant reminder of why the men and women of AFSCME continue to fight for increased security and the best workplace safety resources.

April 28, Workers Memorial Day, is set aside to pay tribute to the men and women who have been killed or injured at work. This is why today Labor Secretary Hilda Solis joined union leaders to break ground for a new national workers memorial at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. The date coincides with the anniversary of the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency in charge of issuing and enforcing standards for workplace safety and health.

Since OSHA’s inception, in 1970, the number of workplace fatalities has fallen. But we have more work to do. Today, only 24 states along with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have federally approved OSHA laws covering public employees. That’s not enough. Every public employee across this nation deserves OSHA protections.

That’s why AFSCME is playing a leading role in the battle for the job safety rights that protect workers from asbestos, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and other hazards. Regularly, we also conduct health and safety training so our members can identify and correct workplace hazards.

The fight for workers’ rights goes hand in hand with workplace security. After all, good jobs are also safe jobs.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

Every day, more Americans get a pink slip, more stores shutter their doors and more families find the American Dream growing dimmer and farther from their grasp. Our 1.6 million members are on the frontlines of this crisis. The vital services they provide are taking huge hits – which means communities are suffering.

AFSCME stepped up our political and legislative efforts in January by creating the “Make America Happen” campaign. Through this campaign, we are mobilizing our members and the general public to support President Obama’s comprehensive effort to promote jobs and economic recovery, enact health care reform this year and pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

AFSCME marshaled our resources to make sure that the President’s historic recovery bill would include substantial new assistance to state and local governments. We generated more than 40,000 phone calls, personal letters and e-mails to members of Congress. Working with Americans United for Change, we launched ads to end the Republicans’ “Just Say No” campaign of obstruction.

The Republicans say we’re exaggerating the problems facing our economy. When President Obama extends a friendly hand to them, they respond with a clenched fist. So, we’re going on the air again with a new television spot. The Roadblock Republicans can’t hide from the damage their resistance is doing to the recovery our people need.

AFSCME has deployed grassroots organizers to work in target states as part of our “Make America Happen” campaign. We’re mobilizing across the country, from Maine to Alaska… in union strongholds like Pennsylvania and Ohio… but also in Southern states, like Arkansas and North Carolina. We’re sending our organizers into Mountain and Western states, like Montana and North Dakota. And we’re mobilizing the grassroots in the American heartland, in states such as Indiana and Missouri.

We have important work to do to overcome the opposition of the corporate CEOs who set the GOP agenda. We’re going to flood Capitol Hill with phone calls and letters to keep us on the road to recovery. And we’re going to make sure that the Roadblock Republicans know that working Americans expect them to put partisanship aside and do what is right for America.

You can see the new TV spot and read about our grassroots efforts at our new website: Make America Happen.com. AFSCME is committed to bringing bold change to our country. We are committed to making America happen again.

From Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog:

Corporate leaders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are on a multi-million dollar mission to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, even as many of them, like Bank of America, take federal bailout money. The Wall Street crowd, with their private jets and huge bonuses, almost destroyed the American economy…

But, if you want to meet real union workers, the people who make the economy function and the people Lewis and his fellow CEOS wants to screw, meet the men from Maersk Alabama over at the AFL-CIO NOW blog:

“We didn’t have to retake the ship because we never surrendered it. We’re American seaman. We’re union members. We stuck together and did our jobs,” said John Cronan, third engineer and son of a merchant sailor

The AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department (MTD) salutes the courageous efforts of the all-union crew aboard the Maersk Alabama for maintaining control of their vessel, as well as the heroic efforts of the U.S. Navy in rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips from his Somali captors.

More at AFL-CIO Now Blog.

It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and put an end to the threats and coercion that make it all but impossible for many workers to join a union. That’s why AFSCME members – folks who’ve seen the value of union membership firsthand – are calling, e-mailing and meeting directly with elected officials across the nation to encourage passage of this critical federal legislation.

Currently, federal law protects a worker’s right to form a union. In practice, the rules are skewed in favor of the employer. EFCA would even the playing field, allowing workers to form a union by signing cards authorizing union representation without being harassed by their employers. It also includes increased penalties for breaking the law. Now, penalties are so slight that companies consider them the cost of doing business. Workers – the backbone of America – deserve greater respect.

Many across our nation know that. Recent polling shows 78 percent of Americans favor legislation to make it easier for workers to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. Most of those questioned specifically support EFCA.

AFSCME members are taking action to help their non-union sisters and brothers who want the same contract protections and benefits that they have. Last month, Colorado Council 76 hosted an annual Town Hall Meeting in Denver. There, lawmakers heard why it is so important to pass EFCA. Listen to what AFL-CIO Executive Director Mike Cerbo said about EFCA at the gathering.

In Wisconsin, at a recent meeting of AFSCME’s statewide Political Steering Committee, Council 40 Pres. Michael Murphy signed letters to the state’s congressional delegation on behalf of 45,000 local government and private sector employees who are members of the Wisconsin PEOPLE Conference, a political action organization.

Murphy, who is also an AFSCME International vice president, made it crystal clear that passing EFCA is essential, especially in these tough economic times. He wrote, “With our economy in a free fall, working families need a fair chance to get ahead, to bargain with their employers for a better life.”

Each member of the steering committee also took time during the meeting to write a personal letter supporting EFCA to U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.).

Unions helped create the middle class. After the economic devastation wrought by the short-sighted policies of the Bush administration, it is more essential than ever that working people have a chance to regain their ability to live the American Dream. Passing EFCA is an essential step on that path.

Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act.

More from AFL-CIO NOW Blog.

In honor of Tax Day, this story from a 2003 issue of AFSCME’s Public Employee magazine seems fitting.

Tip O’Neill, the late and great Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, loved to tell this story.

A constituent of mine woke up one morning and turned on the radio to listen to the weather report, provided by the National Weather Service. He heard a snow plow go by, clearing his street. He made a cup of coffee with clean water (assured by the Clean Water Act). He also cooked up some eggs and bacon — food products that were certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; he didn’t worry for a moment that his family might be poisoned.

The man kissed his children goodbye as they waited for the bus to take them to the public elementary and high schools. His oldest daughter, who wanted to go to college, was applying for government financial-aid loans; so on his way to the subway, he dropped her application letters in the mailbox. He passed the senior housing where his mother resided — and where she received a monthly Social Security check, high-quality health care paid for by Medicare, and a secure, warm environment to live in. Half the cost of the subway ride he took to the airport was subsidized by state and federal transportation funds. He flew to Washington to see me on a plane whose safety was ensured by Federal Aviation Administration inspectors and a flight made safe by federally operated security checkpoints. On his way to the Capitol, he stopped for an hour to enjoy the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History (no admission fee).

Then the man went to his meeting with me. He burst into my office complaining that “I never get anything for my tax dollars!”

A picture of the banner hanging from AFSCME International Union’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C.

April 14th is National Library Workers Day. It is a day set aside during National Library Week to recognize the valuable contributions library workers make to their communities. AFSCME, the largest union representing library workers, has more than 20,000 members in libraries across the country. This year, perhaps more than ever before, these workers deserve recognition and thanks.

As recently reported by the New York Times, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and a host of other media, libraries are busier than ever due to the economic downturn AFSCME library members are under extra pressure as they confront this dramatic increase in patrons at the same time that they face often severe budget cuts and shortened hours. National Library Workers Day provides an opportunity to honor these employees who are on the frontlines helping workers and families during these difficult times.

AFSCME is a leader in promoting better salaries and working conditions. It was an AFSCME local in San Jose, Calif., that led the first strike for pay equity in 1981. In 1998, AFSCME library workers in Boston won a long struggle for job upgrades. District Council 37 library workers in New York City, Queens and Brooklyn received pay upgrades after long campaigns over the past 8 years. Most recently, AFSCME library workers led the fight against closures at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The American Library Association encourages you to recognize your stellar library members by submitting their names to their Galaxy of Stars and by joining their NLWD Facebook fan page.

Former AFSCME staffer Jordan Barab was appointed yesterday as the acting head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Barab is well-known as a strong advocate for health and safety in the workplace. He will lead the agency until a permanent director is chosen and then will become OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary on a permanent basis.

He has a deep commitment and dedication to protecting workers.

Barab directed AFSCME’s safety and health program for AFSCME from 1982 to 1998. He served as special assistant to the assistant director of labor for OSHA from 1998 to 2001. He was a consultant to the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department from 2001 to 2002, and from 2003 to 2007, Barab wrote an award-winning blog about workplace health and safety called Confined Space. Before his appointment, Barab was serving a senior policy adviser for the House Education and Labor Committee.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, says Barab “will bring a tremendous amount of valuable health and safety experience to an agency that has been neglected for far too long.”

More from AFL-CIO NOW Blog.