Wal-Mart costs you. A new study in Tennessee found that one-quarter of Wal-Mart's workforce in that state receive health care through the state's Medicaid program - TennCare - not the company's self-touted health care benefits.

A survey by TennCare and the state Department of Labor found 9,617 of the retailer's 37,000 workers were enrolled in TennCare, designed to provide health care for low-income
workers.

In a recent advertising campaign, Wal-Mart claimed its wages and health care benefits provide its workers with a good standard of living and quality health care.

A 2004 study in California found Wal-Mart workers who qualified for various forms of public assistance cost the state about $32 billion.

For more information on Wal-Mart, go online to www.walmartcostsyou.org

AFL-CIO survey. A new survey is seeking input on how to strengthen state and local union movements has been posted as part of the AFL-CIO's examination of how the union movement must change and build on its strengths to continue to be an effective advocate
for working families.

Visit www.aflcio.org/ourfuture to share your ideas and read what others have to say.

Guvs kill bargaining rights. Perhaps emboldened by the November election results, newly elected Republican governors in Indiana and Missouri eliminated the collective bargaining
rights of some 50,000 workers on Jan. 11 when they signed executive orders unilaterally rescinding workers' bargaining rights and contracts.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, President Bush's former Office of Management and Budget director, issued an executive order that repealed 15 years of collective bargaining rights supported by the state's past three governors. His action eliminated the bargaining rights of some 25,000 members of AFSCME, Unity Team - an AFT-UAW alliance - and International Union of Police Associations. He also rescinded contracts set to run through 2007.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's executive order took away the bargaining rights of about 25,000 AFSCME and SEIU members, including some 9,000 who had reached contracts with the state. Blunt told reporters he believes his action also canceled those contracts, most of which were set to run through 2006. The unions may seek legal action.

Tax cut creates fewer jobs than promised. President George W. Bush's tax cuts have fallen 3.1 million jobs short of the 5.1 million jobs the administration projected would be generated over the past 18 months, according to a new analysis at by the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute.

Meanwhile, for the fourth year in a row, the number of job cuts announced by U.S. employers in 2004 topped 1 million, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm. "The economy remains unbalanced and unsettled, giving working
families plenty of reason to worry about what may lie ahead," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Lunch break attack terminated. In California, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attack on workers' long-standing right to a 30-minute lunch break stalled when public outcry forced him to rescind new workplace regulations.

The so-called emergency regulations, which don't require public hearings, were issued in
early December and provided employers a loophole to take away workers' lunch breaks. Prior to the issuance of the regulation, workers had filed several class-action lawsuits accusing
employers of denying breaks, including one on behalf of more than 200,000 Wal-Mart workers.