AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement in response to the executive order calling for rollbacks of financial regulations:

Christmas came late to Wall Street. But my, oh my, has it come.

This is thanks to President Donald Trump, aided by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street executives, who now have the run of the White House. 

The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in January in the last employment report of the the Barack Obama administration. Unemployment was little changed at 4.8%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. President Donald Trump is inheriting a relatively strong economy based on years of work that Barack Obama and his administration did to bring us out of the horrible recession brought on, in part, because of George W. Bush-era deregulation and weak enforcement. Obama inherited a failing economy, with 589,000 jobs lost in January 2009 and an unemployment rate in February 2009 of 7.6%. Trump, on the other hand, is inheriting a much stronger jobs market, with 227,000 jobs added in January 2017 and an unemploymet rate of 4.8%. Trump's challenge is to continue the pattern of job growth and rising wages. The administration needs to create policies benefiting working people so the recovery continues.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement in response to a leaked executive order from President Donald Trump's administration.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement on the national “right to work” bill:

Right to work is a lie dressed up in a feel-good slogan. It doesn’t give workers freedom—instead, it weakens our right to join together and bargain for better wages and working conditions. Its end goal is to destroy unions. Numbers don’t lie. Workers in states with right to work laws have wages that are 12% lower. That’s because unions raise wages for all workers, not just our members.

President Donald Trump has announced three executive orders addressing immigration that are an affront to core union and American values. Building a wall on our border, scapegoating immigrants and refugees, and shutting out people of Muslim faith will do nothing to uplift working people in our country. To the contrary, these orders sow fear of raids among workers, promote racial profiling and erode core constitutional protections. As such, they are a clear attack on our members, and elevated fear is a direct obstacle to workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. We call on President Trump to revoke these orders.

It is expected that Donald Trump will announce his nomination for the Supreme Court seat previously occupied by Antonin Scalia. As always, working families take a keen interest in judicial appointments, as the courts have a significant impact on so many aspects of our lives, including our work lives.  The Supreme Court rules on whether we are paid properly for the time we work; we have jobs to return to after caring for a sick family member; we are safe from  harmful substances on-the-job; and we are protected from illegal firings when we choose to form unions.

On Super Bowl Sunday next week, some of our larger and faster union brothers—members of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA)—will be battling it out in Houston at Super Bowl 51. While the Super Bowl carries a union label, from players to broadcast crews to stadium workers—your Super Bowl party spread can, too, with union-made in America food and drinks.

This week, President Donald Trump instituted a hiring freeze that has no visible end in sight. Beyond this, he directed the Office of Management and Budget to develop a long-term plan to reduce the federal workforce through attrition. Here are six truths you need to know about the hiring freeze.

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.

Let your friends and family, who may need coverage because they don’t get health care benefits through their jobs or Medicare, know that there's still time to enroll at Healthcare.gov or their state marketplace. The deadline is Jan. 31.

Working America can also help them learn more about their health care coverage options.  

Meet my Jack. Our Jack. America’s Jack. Jack is a spunky, determined, charismatic six-year-old. He plays baseball, basketball and soccer. He swims and reads and dances. Man, can Jack dance! Jack has Down syndrome, but that doesn’t define him. It’s one of the things that makes Jack awesome. And Jack is one of the things that makes his school awesome. Jack knows that. His peers know. His teachers know. We all know. 

The 2016 election featured a heavy focus, in races at all levels of government, on immigration. President Donald Trump's post-election actions have signaled that this will continue. Here are some key things that working people need to know about their rights that will make sure that we have the resources to defend ourselves and the immigrant members of their families and their communities in the event of workplace or community raids.

If you work in a safe workplace and want everyone to know, we have the sign(s) for you! Anxiety and fear are on the rise, and one way to combat them is to let people know that the workplace they are in is a place that doesn't tolerate hate and harassment. The sign makes it clear that your workplace will not tolerate racism, sexism, xenophobia, Islamophobia or transphobia.  

The U.S. Trade Representative has announced the closure of a petition defending workers' rights in Fiji. This case represents gains for workers in our struggle for freedom and justice, but obstacles remain.

As we examine the new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Annual Union Membership Report, it is striking that corporations and their hired politicians have been at the throats of working people for years, attacking our rights to negotiate on the job. And that has left us weaker.

There are millions of working people who want and need a union but who are being prevented from forming one by their employer. And instead of penalizing bad actors, our outdated labor laws have made union avoidance nothing more than the cost of doing business. This must change.

"The truth is, collective action in America is stronger than ever," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "We’ve seen the source of our power in defeating the TPP, even when most people told us we couldn’t. We’ve seen it in successfully raising wages at the state and local levels against great political odds."

The Berger-Marks Foundation has announced the winners of its 2017 awards, recognizing the leadership of young women in the fight for labor organizing, immigration, racial justice, prison reform, and the right for decent health care and working conditions. Of the winners, the Berger-Marks Foundation said: "The winners of the Edna Award for Social Justice and the Kate Mullany Courageous Young Worker Award have each stood up for justice and workers’ rights in the face of enormous odds." The recipients will be given their awards at a reception on Feb. 9 in Washington, D.C.

A 62-year-old man in the antebellum South told a traveler from the North that he’d "give any man $20 to $30 down, if he could get me free."

In two op-eds this week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called upon Donald Trump to embrace policies that will help working people, not roll back the hard-fought gains that so many have sacrificed to achieve.

President Donald Trump did not say anything about health care in his inaugural address, but one of his first official actions as president was to issue an executive order focused on the Affordable Care Act. While the executive order does not tell working people a whole lot about what he plans to do, it’s worth looking at a few things he did and didn’t say in his first official action on health care.