In one of the worst natural disasters to hit the northeastern United Stated in recent history, that left hundreds of thousands of people affected, It has been union workers who have come to the aid in areas related to the clean up, rebuilding as well as in charitable actions including food and clothing drives done by all Philadelphia area unions as well as IBEW #98 who sent hundreds of their members to the aid of Hurricane Sandy Victims in Long Island and other Jersey shore points.

In late November, fast food workers from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC bravely protested around New York City to demand of a living wage of $15 an hour in pay – a step up from the minimum wage many employees currently earn – and the right to form a union.

After more than a year of intense negotiations and mediation and a two-week strike, workers represented by the CWA and IBEW reached an agreement with Verizon Communications. The ensuing contract protected middle-class jobs and retirement security of 45,000 workers from Virginia to Massachusetts.

Dane County Judge Juan Colas struck down Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s law repealing most collective bargaining rights for local and school employees. While the law remains largely in place for state workers, the decision returns city, county, and school workers to the organized status they enjoyed before Walker signed the legislation in March 2011. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Colas ruled that the law violated workers’ constitutional rights to free speech, free association, and equal representation under the law by capping union workers’ raises but not those of their nonunion counterparts.”

UNITEHERE and the National AFL-CIO have supported the workers of Hyatt in their plight to organize, to gain fair working conditions and a living wage in a situation that many have said is one of the most egregious and abusive working conditions of any hotel chain in the USA.