By Doug Cunningham

The Economic Policy Institute says over four million U.S. jobs could be at risk in climate change legislation unless Congress maintains the competitiveness of energy-intensive, trade-sensitive manufacturers. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard agrees.

[Gerard]: “If we don’t have sufficient border adjustment mechanisms we will have both job leakage and carbon leakage. It’s important that we have a climate change bill that won’t cost us jobs.”

Civilian employees at Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base will be receiving pay increases. The two bases are being merged with the Lakehurst Navel Engineering Station and the civilians at Fort Dix and MacGuire are paid less then their Naval counterparts. The higher rate will go into effect on October 11. The reason for the pay discrepancy was due to Lakehurst being located in the New York pay region and Dix and McGuire being in the Philadelphia pay region.

 By Doug Cunningham

Ed McElroy is CEO of Ullico – an insurance and financial investment company catering to the labor movement. He says unions have an opportunity to grow green jobs.

[McElroy]: “In the building trades, in the machinist’s union and several other unions we have very high level apprenticeship programs. And so we’re able to take the new technologies and train workers as they work as journeymen in many of these jobs.”

 By Doug Cunningham

AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department President Mark Ayers says labor is embracing the green jobs of the future, determined to make them good jobs.

[Ayers]: “We must fight for lifetime careers that offer workers new skills, portable credentials and a deep, enduring sense of craft pride. That is what building trade unions have offered for more than 100 years.”

 By Doug Cunningham

Newly elected AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka says he’s determined to seize this moment in history for labor to bring more workers into the movement while winning important health care and labor law reforms like the Employee Free Choice Act.

[Trumka]: “I swear to you that come hell or high water we will win that act. We will seize the moment. We will act. We will lead. And by God, we will win!”

 By Doug Cunningham

[Obama]: “When organized labor succeeds, that’s when the middle class succeeds, and when the middle class succeeds that’s when the United States of America succeeds! That’s what we’re fighting for.”

 President Obama electrified the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh this week. Rich Trumka, the AFL-CIO’s new President, says labor and Obamaare allies in the same fight.

 [Trumka]: “He said that we’re part of the solution, not the problem, that if you want to build the middle class you have to have a strong labor movement. So we’re excited about that.”

 By Doug Cunningham

After 14 years leading the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney is retiring as president. He told the labor federation’s Pittsburgh convention that under his leadership labor has taken some important steps forward.

[Sweeney}: “We brought health care and labor law reform to the top of our national agenda. We seated a pro-working family majority in the United States Congress. We elected a champion of working class families as the first African-American president in the history of our country.”

President Obama will speak to the AFL-CIO Wednesday.

 By Doug Cunningham

After 14 years leading the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney is retiring as president. He told the labor federation’s Pittsburgh convention that under his leadership labor has taken some important steps forward.

[Sweeney}: “We brought health care and labor law reform to the top of our national agenda. We seated a pro-working family majority in the United States Congress. We elected a champion of working class families as the first African-American president in the history of our country.”

President Obama will speak to the AFL-CIO Wednesday.

 By Doug Cunningham

Rich Trumka, the man soon to be new President of the AFL-CIO, says labor won’t support any healthcare reform that doesn’t include a public option.

[Trumka]: “You have to have a public option. You can’t have healthcare reform without having a public option. The public option allows people to vote with their feet. It gives them somewhere to go. And it will eventually force insurance companies to provide better healthcare.”

 By Doug Cunningham

A hundred Quad City Die Casting workers in Illinois, represented by UE, are demanding that Wells Fargo Bank pay roughly $200,000 owed in wages and benefits, UE’s Leah Fried says Wells Fargo took billions in tax money to save itself , but refuses to pay these workers what they’re owed.

[Fried]: “The arrogance of this corporation - and their deliberate decisions not to stimulate the economy in this case, you know, they’re creating unemployment after we gave them $25 billion – is really shameful.”