Hundreds of union members and community activists marched to three Hollywood car washes Saturday to let car wash owners know they will not quit until car wash employees are treated fairly. More than 200 union members, day laborers, students and union and immigrant rights leaders rallied at the Vermont Hand Wash, the flagship location of the Pirian family, which owns up to eight car washes in Los Angeles County.

Launched on Thursday, the Community-Labor-Environmental-Action Network (CLEAN) Carwash Campaign already is showing results. On Saturday, the owner of the Vermont Hand Wash invited representatives into the car wash for an inspection of the facilities. Since the announcement of the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, he has purchased some safety equipment, time clocks and a water cooler. One Vermont Car Wash worker, Pedro Guzman, told the Los Angeles Times many workers were paid $40 a day for more than 10 hours of work. Others got tips only.

Nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston celebrate winning the first nurses' union in Texas.

While most Texans are mourning the Texas Longhorns’ loss in the NCAA basketball tournament yesterday, nearly 300 nurses in Houston are celebrating their own enormous victory. The registered nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center are the first in the Lone Star State to win collective bargaining rights. They gained their voice on the job March 27 and 28 by voting for the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) Texas, an affiliate of California Nurses Association/NNOC.

Says Josie Jupio, an RN at the hospital:

Finally our voice will be heard. This victory of the nurses' unity will bring a change for the better, impacting patient care, improving the benefits and assuring an open door policy that is fair to all.

The National Mediation Board (NMB) set April 23–June 3, 2008, for the mail/telephone ballot elections in which 13,000 Delta Air Lines flight attendants will vote on whether to join a union, and more from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

Organizing

AFA-CWA, Delta Air Lines: The National Mediation Board (NMB) notified the 13,000 Delta Air Lines flight attendants and the company that the voting period for a union election is scheduled for April 23–June 3, 2008. On March 18, the NMB notified the of Flight Attendants (AFA), an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), that it authorized a mail/telephone ballot union representation vote, but at that time did not specify dates for a voting period. Delta management responded to the news by sending a written statement to its attendants asserting they would be better off without a union.

A big part of the American Dream is based on the premise that if you work hard, you can provide for yourself and your family. But in today’s economy, good jobs are disappearing.

To survive, America's workers are forced to take low-paying jobs that rarely offer health care or retirement security—and that's not right, says Constance, a 59-year-old single woman from Illinois. If you work in the United States, you should be able to do more than just scrape by.

I left a job in a neighboring state two years ago to come back to help take care of my last immediate family member. I am single. I moved to Illinois, accepting a position with a small insurance company, who downsized, and within six months I was out of work. You can't afford health insurance on unemployment wages.

With the annual Workers Memorial Day commemoration coming up next month, the AFL-CIO Cool Tools selection is highlighting "Workingman's Death," a movie documenting six of the most dangerous, deadly and exploitive jobs on the planet. Filmmaker Michael Glawogger says he