In a wild debate where Hillary Clinton showed that she was prepared and ready to be president and Donald Trump was, well, present, issues important to working families were front and center.

My current work as a forensic coordinator for a hospital in Baltimore brings me into daily contact with people who are in the court system. Every day I run mental assessments to help the court decide whether mental illness is responsible for a person’s visit to the local courthouse. In my previous job at a local jail, I saw a steady stream of people returning to jail because they didn’t know how difficult having a criminal record would make it for them to find steady employment and readjust to life in their communities. 

When Hillary Clinton takes the stage for her first debate with Donald Trump, her primary purpose should be very simple: She must let go and be herself.

Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s this week’s Working People Weekly List.

A new article at Bloomberg takes a look at union women in the Rust Belt and finds that more and more of them are supporting Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump campaigned in Pittsburgh this week, and working families were there to make sure that Trump's agenda was exposed as the fraud it is. Here is some of the local coverage.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve's open market committee concluded its two-day meeting to set U.S. monetary policy. In a vote that divided the Board of Governors, appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in an open public process, and the presidents of the regional bank board presidents, chosen by boards dominated by banks within their region, Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the FOMC, announced the FOMC decided to hold steady to its current fed funds rate. The fed funds rate is an overnight interest charge made between banks loaning reserves to each other. If it is higher, the cost of making loans goes up, and that reduces liquidity for the business and consumer sectors. Lower liquidity means less borrowing for business investment or consumer purchases like homes and cars. In turn, that means slower demand, and translates into slower growth for jobs.

When working people come together and win the contracts, it proves that our raising wages agenda drives economic stability. Working people across the country are creating better lives for themselves and turning those workplace victories into political power. These latest worker wins show what the power of collective voice can achieve.

When they aren't on the job, working people put their time and effort into helping their community and working for the issues and political leaders who fight for us. Here are some recent examples of working people in action.

As world leaders met in the U.N. General Assembly and the Obama administration's Leaders’ Summit to make a new commitment to address mass movements of refugees and migrants, labor and immigrant leaders gathered by the United Nations to call on governments to promote dignity and decent work for those on the move.

On Sept. 13, more than 40,000 union women from across the country joined a telephone town hall to discuss what’s at stake this election cycle for working women and their families. The event was hosted by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, the highest-ranking woman in the labor movement, and featured AFT President Randi Weingarten; Maria Elena Durazo, UNITE HERE general vice president for immigration, civil rights and diversity; and Linda Hinton, Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 4 vice president. These leaders rallied their sisters to join the fight to elect worker-friendly candidates up and down the ballot who reflect the economic priorities of working women and families.

We recently blogged about the hopeful U.S. Census Bureau release finding the fastest middle-class wage growth on record and a falling poverty rate. However, the Census finding and the 4.9% unemployment rate have some declaring that it’s time for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

The more union members hear about Donald Trump--he supports dangerous right to work laws, refuses to negotiate with working people who formed a union at his hotel and ignores union issues--the less they like him. 

In May, a Westin Long Beach Hotel maid, Juana Melara, and waiter, Francisco Abdul Estin, traveled to Paris. However, this was not a typical European vacation for these two working people. They were there to discuss their working conditions and their right to join a union free of interference with Natixis, the French parent of a company that oversees their hotel.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre addressed the United Nations today about embracing this historic opportunity to create a more just system for migrants and refugees. 

Gebre is a refugee from Ethiopia and walked 93 days through the desert as a teenager to find his freedom in America. 

Here are Gebre's remarks to the United Nations (after the jump). 

Time and again, Donald Trump claims that he has union support. He panders to working people but still doesn't get it: He doesn't talk about collective bargaining or the right of workers to stand together for a better life. 

His words ring hollow and working people know it. He won't get our support on Nov. 8.

Each week, we take a look at the biggest friends and foes of labor. We celebrate the workers winning big and small battles, and we shame the companies or people trying to deny working people their rights.

Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s this week’s Working People Weekly List.

It's hardly front-page news that Donald Trump is a big-league flip-flopper. Through Sept. 7, NBC News has tracked "117 distinct policy shifts on 20 major issues, tracking only his reversals since he announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015."

If you were lamenting that Labor Day’s current day association with leisure has obfuscated the true meaning of the holiday—don’t despair because the working people of Boulder Station Hotel & Casino got together over the Labor Day weekend and after a long battle said, "Union Yes!"