The Building Jobs Coalition, a diverse group of contractors, building trades, architects, engineers, economic developers and public officials will meet on the Capitol steps on Wednesday, March 10 at 1PM to highlight the need for legislative action in support of industries and jobs.

National unemployment dipped below 10 percent in January, but workers in the building and construction trades have yet to feel any recovery. Today, the Center for American Progress alongside Home Performance Resource Center is releasing a report on the job-creating opportunity that the HOME STAR program can create and the scope of the "tool belt recession" in 44 states in America.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has blocked the Senate from voting to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidies for the jobless, which expired on Sunday."It's unconscionable to play politics with unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits in the middle of these tough economic times," said Sen. Franken. "I talk to Minnesotans all over the state who don't know what they'll do when their benefits run out."

With today’s grim budget forecast news, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson called on Governor Pawlenty and state policymakers to put politics aside and take a balanced approach aimed at job creation. “While this budget deficit will take sacrifice from everyone to solve, working Minnesotans are bearing more than their fair share,” Knutson said. “It’s time for the richest to also sacrifice to get Minnesotans back to work.”

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) has a message for the 1.2 million jobless workers who will lose their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and COBRA health coverage in March.  “Tough sh*t”  Bunning has single-handily blocked a vote on a 30-day extension by being the only senator to oppose a unanimous consent motion to vote on the bill which was passed earlier by the House.

Despite the need for good-paying jobs in Minnesota and the jobs this legislation would create, Governor Tim Pawlenty vowed to veto the entire bill. As a result, legislative leaders decided to keep the bill from reaching the Governor's desk.

Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) member Robin De Haven is being hailed as hero for his role in rescuing five people from the blazing Austin, Texas, building where a man with a vendetta against the Internal Revenue Service crashed his fuel-laden plane Thursday. De Haven was on his way to work when he saw the single-engine plane, which witnesses say was at full throttle, heading toward the building.

If there’s one thing Americans agree on, it’s that we need more jobs now. That reality is often twisted by conservatives, who say the one-year-old economic recovery plan has failed. But they are just wrong. The AFL-CIO is pushing for much greater investment to create the millions more jobs we need to get us out of our current hole. Check out the federation’s five-point plan to put America back to work here.

Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter praised the House’s passage of the jobs infrastructure bill yesterday. “This bill will provide good jobs that will support and sustain families.” “This infrastructure bill for just under $1 billion will create 21,000 to 27,000 jobs,” said Harry Melander, president of Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council.

These days, construction cranes are a rare sight above the metro area skyline. But drive west on W. 36th St. towards Lake Calhoun and you can see a giant crane towering above the hills on Calhoun’s western shore. At the corner of France Ave. So. and Excelsior Blvd., a mixed-use development funded by union pension funds is creating union construction jobs while building new market-rate rental housing and retail space. Like all development financed by HIT, 100 percent of the construction work at the Ellipse is required to be union labor.