AFSCME Council 5 sends us this exciting update from Minnesota:

After a debate that took nearly 10 hours over three legislative days, the Minnesota House of Representatives approved historic legislation Monday that extends collective bargaining rights to family child care providers and personal care attendants. The bill passed 68-66 after surviving 20 Republican amendments trying to undermine it. Gov. Mark Dayton promises to sign the bill. With the victory—which was eight years in the making—about 11,000 family child care providers gain the ability to vote on forming a union to act with a unified voice to improve the future for providers, children and working parents. The law covers licensed and unlicensed providers who care for children in the state’s basic sliding fee program.

Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff to the summer holiday season. While the day honors those who have given their lives defending the nation—and Jimmy Gilbert, director of the AFL-CIO’s Union Veterans Council, will write more on that next Monday—the weekend also marks the start of grilling season. Here's some union-made food and drink to get your barbecue off to a great start.

Wilma Liebman who served 14 years on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—including chairwoman from 2009–2011—says, “Appointments to the NLRB have been a political battleground for decades.” But, in a column today in Politico, she says the current attack on the NLRB is the most vicious since the board was created in the 1930s.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) has offered a series of amendments to the commonsense immigration bill (S. 744), currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate, designed to fix what many see as flaws in the bill that weaken families. If approved, the amendments would make the bill more focused on keeping families intact, long an important principle in the U.S. immigration system. More than 200 organizations signed a letter in support of the amendments.

Join Elianne Ramos on Wednesday from 3-4 p.m. EDT for the third in our series of live online discussions on how to build a stronger movement for working people. Ramos, principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of communications and PR for Latinos in Social Media, poses this question:

Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. workforce and their employment experiences are as varied as their individual histories. How can the labor movement use new technologies to solidify its Latino membership?

Jim “Runt” Gregory served as the financial secretary of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 727 in Calvert City, Ky., during the tenure of eight presidents.

“Presidents of the United States,” he said with a grin.

Dorothy was a longtime activist with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO. In the summer of 2012, she lost her only son and found that her home, which she bought for her retirement, was in serious need of repair. That's when her church, Journey Church, in Norman, Okla., and the state federation stepped in and did what they could to change her life.

Check out this video to see what they did in only eight hours. 

In our second online discussion on how to build a stronger movement for working people, Dr. Steven Pitts, labor policy specialist at the University of California, Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, asked you: “Union density is higher among black workers than it is for any other racial or ethnic group of workers. How can the labor movement use this to build a stronger movement for social change?”

The question generated a thoughtful and lively discussion that will help us prepare for the 2013 AFL-CIO Convention that will focus on how the labor movement should change and what we can do together to improve the future of all working people.

Why do Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Oracle want to hire foreign high-tech workers instead of qualified U.S. workers? They won’t admit it, but it is because they can—and do—pay them less. That’s why they are pushing so hard for a series of amendments from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would remove provisions in the immigration bill under consideration that give qualified U.S. workers the first shot at those high-tech jobs.

Get your slingshots ready #TechGoliaths trying 2strip wkr protections and make it easier to fire and displace US wkrs #CIRmarkup

— Andrea DiBitetto (@andiezd) May 16, 2013

Followers of the Rootstrikers movement, which is dedicated to getting money out of politics across the country, are taking action on Sunday, May 19, to expose corporate spending in politics. The plan is for activists to head to grocery stores, department stores and shopping malls and use the BizVizz mobile app to help get out the word that some of the most popular products sold in those stores are made by companies that pour millions of dollars into buying elected officials.