"New Hampshire’s union members are coming together in the final days before the election for a massive get-out-the-vote effort aimed at electing Sen. Barack Obama to the White House, Jeanne Shaheen to the U.S. Senate and pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot. "

"Rhode Island, just a few years ago celebrated for job and productivity growth, is suddenly reeling - with some indicators showing the worst economic climate in 17 years."

"U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes on Tuesday heard from a group of union workers who are dissatisfied with wages, health insurance, a shrinking job market and illegal immigration."

"President Bush issued an executive order on Monday that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security."

The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job.

"Before there was talk of a "transformational presidency," Barack Obama needed a transformational moment. It came in February at a sprawling General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, where the Illinois senator--trailed by a press corps skeptical about his ability to appeal to white union members--electrified thousands of autoworkers with a populist promise of infrastructure investment, new trade policies and a future for American manufacturing."

"The next labor secretary will be taking charge of an agency widely criticized for walking away from its regulatory function across a range of issues, including wage and hour law and workplace safety."

The alliance between organized labor and immigrant rights groups proved very powerful during the presidential election, helping to deliver Nevada, Florida and Virginia for President-elect Barack Obama. Perhaps that is why some conservatives writers are trying to divide the two groups. An example of this tactic is the claim Ruben Navarrette Jr. made in a recent column that President-elect Obama has sidetracked the issue of immigration reform because of opposition from the labor movement. He wrote, "As has always been the case with the immigration issue, what Democrats worry about most is antagonizing their sponsors in organized labor."

Click the headline to read the remarks of AFL-CIO President Sweeney at a post-election press briefing held on November 5, 2008.

Click the headline to read about the crucial role union voters played in President-elect Obama's historic victory.