Activists from AFSCME Council 59 and other supporters of workers’ rights in South Dakota defeated an effort to revoke collective bargaining for public employees there.

First, they persuaded the bill’s sponsor, South Dakota state Sen. Stan Adelstein (R-Rapid City), to reverse course and drop his support for it. Then they participated in a petition drive that collected 750 signatures opposing the measure. Members also packed a House Commerce and Energy Committee hearing on Wednesday, expressing their displeasure. They were joined by Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker in urging a no vote. They won – unanimously.

Voters in Ohio recently came to the same conclusion and voted down a measure that also would have repealed collective bargaining rights. But workers’ union rights are under attack in Indiana, Michigan and other states.

In Wisconsin, where the nationwide battle to preserve collective bargaining began last year, AFSCME and other supporters of worker rights are fighting back.

For more about the importance of collective bargaining rights, click here.

UPDATE: Metro DC Communications Director Chris Garlock send us this more detailed report from this afternoon’s actions.

Chanting “Whose America? Our America!” as many as 700 labor and community activists turned out in force earlier this afternoon outside the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), shutting down Woodley Rd. with an impromptu sit in and brief takeover take-over of the Mariott Wardman Park Hotel driveway.

Well-heeled CPAC attendees gawked as the huge crowd turned Woodley Road into a multi-hued street festival of “the 99%” The spirited demonstration (click here for a slideshow) lasted over two hours, with many planning to stay on through the afternoon for the second round, dubbed Occupy CPAC: Scott Walker and the Union Busters, planned to start at 5 p.m. focusing on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who’s scheduled to address CPAC tonight.

Union and progressive activists are staging some unique events today at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting in Washington, D.C., the annual gathering of the Who’s Who of the 1 percent, including Mitt Romney, Scott Walker, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, Ann Coulter and Grover Norquist.

You can keep up with today’s Occupy CPAC actions with this live Twitter feed from the Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council AFL-CIO and with the hashtag #OccupyCPAC.

Actions are set for noon and 5 p.m. (EST). If you are in the D.C. area and want to jin, head over to the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel (2600 Woodley Rd. at Connecticut Ave. N.W.). The nearest Metro stop is the Woodley Park station.

There’s still time to show your love to the special someone who Occupies your heart on Valentine’s Day, and Union Plus and Working America members can get a 20 percent discount on flower arrangements through Teleflora. (Click here to join Working America and get your flower discount.)

Earlier this week, Union Plus posted a few labor-inspired messages on its Facebook wall the union lover in you might want to include with the flowers.

• My love, like a union contract, gives you a feeling of security.
• My heart skipped a beat…I need workers’ comp.
• They might withhold my paycheck, but I’ll never withhold my love.

Click here for more or to add your own.

Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling wrote this at Huffington Post.

In 2010 Mitt Romney made $21.7 million, while that same year the average senior citizen received $14,000 in Social Security benefits.

Put another way, Mitt Romney made more by 6:00 a.m. on January 1 than many retirees did the entire year. His daily income was over four times greater than many seniors’ annual income.

Why does this matter? Shouldn’t his finances be none of our business? To me, it matters because of how sharply it contrasts with his plans to increase the Social Security retirement age, lower benefits for some seniors, and let Wall Street gamble away—and profit from—a privatized Social Security system. It reflects a cold indifference to those less fortunate.

Seniors—along with younger generations who worry if they will ever be able to retire—need to keep a close eye on politicians this year. For example, Romney’s stance on Social Security does not match his telling a group of seniors on the eve of the Florida primary, “We will never go after Medicare or Social Security.”

Social Security is not just another pension fund for the Bain Capitals of the world to raid. Social Security is how each day—while Mitt Romney earns another $59,360—millions of retirees are able to pay their bills and put food on the table.

Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-800-333-7212.

In a nationwide advertising campaign getting underway this weekend, AFGE members are calling out Republican lawmakers for supporting a plan to pay for the payroll tax relief extension by slashing federal employee wages.

The new ads feature a Veterans Affairs nurse, a Defense Department worker and a federal corrections officer. They want GOP lawmakers to “explain it to me” how cutting federal pay and benefits helps put Americans back to work. Asks Minnesota VA nurse Teresa Capecchi:

Twelve percent of the salary I earn caring for veterans goes to my retirement. Explain it to me, GOP, how cutting my retirement puts people to work.

Republicans in Congress have proposed paying for the payroll tax relief extension by freezing federal employee salaries for another year. Says AFGE National President John Gage:

Federal employees already have given up their pay raises for two years in a row and many are in danger of losing their jobs because of drastic agency downsizing efforts. Freezing their wages for another year adds insult to injury and does nothing to get Americans back to work.

Hundreds of AFGE members will be in Washington for the union’s annual Legislative and Grassroots Mobilization Conference Feb. 12-15. Members will meet with their congressional representatives during the week to address the attacks on federal employees’ pay, pensions and benefits.

The Transport Workers (TWU) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have voted to work together in a new partnership. The two unions represent more than 120,000 airline workers and are joining forces to support bargaining and organizing at American Airlines and campaigns at other airlines.

In New York and Philadelphia, TWU members have been a big part of the fair contract fight by CWA and Electrical Workers (IBEW) members at Verizon and Verizon Wireless. In the Midwest, where TWU represents transit workers and CWA represents university and public workers, there’s a lot of common ground.

TWU President James C. Little says the two unions share “common values and principles that should intuitively benefit our members through working together.” CWA President Larry Cohen says partnerships like this “are the only way we will make progress for workers.”

AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this cross-post from Blue Hampshire.

Full of tea party zeal after voting to repeal lunch hours for all employees, the House Labor Committee took up a new so-called right to work “RTW” bill today over the loud objections of union members, business owners and faith leaders.

As state House Speaker William O’Brien (R) did last fall, Labor Committee Chairman Gary Daniels invited political candidates to stump on the floor of the House in return for their endorsement of RTW. Gubernatorial candidates Ovid Lamontagne and Kevin Smith did the honors.

Never mind that business owners and labor leaders think it’s time to move on from the contentious battle over RTW that shook the Legislature last year.

As Mark MacKenzie, president of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, testified:

We have lower poverty levels, higher graduation rates, and higher wages than any right-to-work state. We have negotiated thousands of successful collective bargaining agreements. This law is not broken. There is no need for right-to-work.

Peter Church, owner of a small union printing shop in Manchester, agreed.

This is not something that New Hampshire needs. It’s certainly not something that anyone operating a business in New Hampshire wants.

And we can’t forget about Robert Lynch, staunch Libertarian and celebrated author, who used his 15 minutes at the microphone to promote both RTW and his new book, “Guardrails, God and Santa Claus,” on the importance of freedom.

The overarching arguments haven’t changed much from last year. Opponents say that “right to work” for less will take away workers’ rights and lower their wages.

Proponents, on the other hand, will try to sell you something: either a book, or a candidate, or a complete fallacy about what our economy needs and how it works.

Rally at Big-O-Tires in Bellflower!

In Findlay, Ohio, more than 1,000 tire workers and their families have been locked-out of their jobs by Cooper Tire for more than two months now.

We beat Rio Tinto in Boron, now let's beat them in Quebec

Solidarity from L.A. union members helped 600 families beat a 15-week lockout by Rio Tinto at the company’s U.S. Borax mine in Boron.

Now Rio Tinto is going after 780 families at a huge aluminum smelter in Alma, Quebec, Canada. The company locked-out these families on December 31, 2011 after they dared to oppose Rio Tinto’s subcontracting scheme that’s destroying good jobs in their community.