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Dear Editor: I am happy Kevin Scofield is glad to remain employed at Menards during hard times, though he hardly offers spirited details and talks vaguely of policies he does not like. Unfortunately, Menards denies their employees the right to speak openly regarding company employment policies and decisions with which they may disagree.

For instance, Menards has created a no-gossiping policy at the workplace. The company’s “Team Member Pay Merit Review Eligibility Notice” lists reasons managers can cite to deny employees merit pay increases — including gossiping. Menards' gossiping ban violates the National Labor Relations Act as it unjustly penalizes any employee who complains, to another employee, about working conditions.

The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), AFL-CIO, has endorsed Shaun Francis for the New York State Senate, 43rd District.

“Shaun has dedicated his post-baseball career to serving the needs of working people,” said OPEIU President Richard Lanigan. “He has the experience and proven dedication that makes him the right candidate to represent working families in New York and ensure their interests are protected in Albany.” Lanigan pledged OPEIU will mobilize its members in the 43rd District to help ensure that Francis is elected.

David versus Goliath comparisons leap to the journalist's pen whenever an average person fights for rights against the controlling richest .01 percent. It's a popular truism. But sometimes it's dead right. Such is the case of an unknown union organizer who likes to work computer and phone out of a coffee shop near his Manhattan home in a state that doesn't even have one of John Menard Jr.'s 280 Big Box home improvement stores.

Supreme Court Should Approve Policies that Will Provide Much-needed Relief to Immigrant Working Families

We applaud the Supreme Court's decision to take up this case, which will have profound consequences for our immigrant brothers and sisters who live and work every day under a cloud of fear, as well as for racial and economic justice in our country.  We are confident that the Court will reverse the Fifth Circuit and allow the DAPA and expanded DACA policies to go into effect, affording millions of people the opportunity to apply for work authorization and temporary protection from deportation. We encourage the Department of Homeland Security to take all steps necessary to ensure these much-needed policies can be implemented as soon as possible after the Court issues its decision this summer.

Marking nearly one year since the first ever Raising Wages Summit, the AFL-CIO released a new report, Fighting for a Better Life:  How Working People Across America are Organizing to Raise Wages and Improve Work, detailing the successes, struggles and path ahead to raise wages for working people.

The report finds that over the last year income inequality has shifted from a problem we discuss to a problem we can solve, and points to clear and unequivocal steps for a path forward.  Armed with the solutions outlined in the report, the central conclusion is that America is ready to move beyond the discussion of income inequality and is beginning to write new rules that will shape the economy.