We want to wish you a happy Labor Day, from the AFL-CIO, America's working people in unions. 

AFL-CIO officers, Richard Trumka, Liz Shuler and Tefere Gebre, traveled around the country today to celebrate working people and their accomplishments and to discuss the issues we care about most this election season. 

The latest video from AFGE tells us that Labor Day wasn't a gift. It was something earned by the hard work of ordinary people who decided they weren't going to sit down without a fight. And they ask what it is that we are willing to fight for today?

With Labor Day around the corner, the California labor movement came together to launch a brand new campaign to help set the record straight on unions. The Working People Standing Together video tells it like it is: Our middle class is stronger when working people have a seat at the table.

The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in August and unemployment was unchanged at 4.9%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In the weeks leading up to Labor Day, a group of prominent Ohio labor leaders conducted a tour of press conferences around the state to discuss the presidential candidates in the 2016 elections. "There is a clear contrast for working people this fall and this election, which will be a formative one for an entire generation of Ohioans," said Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga, at the onset of the tour. "The labor movement here is educating its members on the real dangers of a Trump presidency and the real promise for working people that Hillary Clinton represents," he said.  

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka met with reporters this morning at the annual Christian Science Monitor breakfast. 

Here are some must-read clips.

Looking for plans this Labor Day? 

Make a difference for working people and find a Labor Day event near you.

Donald Trump built his campaign on a foundation of hate and bigotry. His desperate, scripted speech today about immigrant working families will not fool anyone. We already know where he stands.

Today, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler addressed the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Convention about what's at stake for working women this election. 

Working women in particular are driving the progressive agenda forward and are coming up with solutions to the problems that have been holding working families back. Here are some highlights of Shuler's speech (after the jump). 

There's a lot at stake in the 2016 presidential election. While U.S. Supreme Court nominations may not be the most headline-grabbing stories that come out of a presidency, they probably should be. With Supreme Court justices serving for life and having significant power in interpreting laws that affect our daily lives, the importance of court appointments cannot be overstated.

Today, we dropped the first round of regular, direct mail pieces that will reach voters in key battleground states. The program begins by calling out Donald Trump’s hypocrisy to more than 150,000 voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania. We will send mail to union members in six additional states, including Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina every week until Election Day.

One night at his UPS job, Tefere Gebre's co-worker handed him some union material. 

“He told me that I’d get health care and vacation and other benefits by filling it out. I said, ‘Are you serious?’ I thought ‘Hmm. Everyone should have that.’”

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.

The Kansas City Federal Reserve Regional Bank held its annual research symposium at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming this week. The focus was on the limits of monetary policy. The challenge faced by central bankers is that since the Great Depression, the world has faced deflationary pressures from overcapacity. Oil prices have plummeted, Chinese steel floods the global markets and workers remained frustrated with low wages and finding full-time work. Central bankers have run into a problem because their primary tool of interest rate policy to stimulate the economy has run into the limit of zero nominal interest rates. At zero, they are essentially giving away money. But investment remains stuck on low. And one way to stir the economy, to prompt inflation that gives the room of rising prices for firms to make profitable investments, isn’t happening.

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.

Yes, graduate students who work are WORKERS. The National Labor Relations Board has re-settled the question of whether graduate student workers are primarily students or workers and decided…they can be both.

Today, hundreds of workers protested and rallied in front of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. Culinary Workers Union members and Trump Hotel Las Vegas workers were joined by our Ironworkers brothers and sisters from across the country who were in town for their national convention.

The Olympics is a constant exercise in irony and hopefulness for African Americans. Since John Taylor won a gold medal at the 1908 Olympics in London, in the no longer contested medley relay, African Americans have hoped that winning gold for the United States would transform America’s dialogue on race. The hope was it could transform the discourse to see African American Olympians, as all Olympians, as exceptional; and, rather than exceptions to their race, as examples of their race and the families that supported and nurtured their excellence.

Around the country, classes are starting up again, students are getting ready to learn once more and parents are rushing out to buy the supplies their children need for school. When shopping for those necessary items, you can make sure that your purchases support working families. Here is a list of union-made school supplies.