WASHINGTON - Three months after organized labor played a big part in helping Democrats take control of Congress - and two weeks after House Dems successfully pushed through their "first 100-hour" agenda - unions are rightfully asking, what's next?

Without a doubt, it's way early in the legislative process in the new Congress, with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress. But unions leaders are not far in the background, prodding Democratic legislators that they helped put into office to start moving the legislative focus away from corporations, and more in favor of working men and women.

Anna Burger, chairwoman of Change to Win - the breakaway labor group - said workers expect "newly elected members will do their part to restore the American dream. Union volunteers devoted their time, energy, and hard-earned dollars in the last election cycle to send representatives to Washington who promised to fight for ordinary Americans, not corporate America. And across the country, voters joined them in taking action at the polls because they, too, want change."

Here's a sampling of what's going on in Washington, as organized labor and Dems get their bearings in the 110th Congress.

Minimum wage: On Jan. 10, the House, on a 315-116 vote (including 82 Republicans voting in the majority) approved a $2.10 increase in the minimum wage. The hike would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 in just over two years. A minimum wage increase would directly raise the pay of 5.6 million workers

With House passage, the matter moved to the Senate, where a majority of senators, including a handful of Republicans, on Jan. 25 voted to raise the minimum wage. But the Republican opponents of the measure filibustered the bill, and 60 votes are needed to override a filibuster.

Republicans and President Bush have said they would only pass a minimum wage hike if it includes some small tax breaks for small businesses.

"It's time Congress stopped playing politics with the lives of our nation's low-wage workers," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "The mostly Republican opposition to a 'clean' bill is an affront to our nation's low-wage workers."

100 Hours: Other items on new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's list for the first 100 legislative hours included new ethics rules and to pass legislation to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations, expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and negotiate lower prescription drug prices. They were all passed by a majority of House members. Plans to cut interest rates on student loans and end oil subsidies were also scheduled for a vote last week.

Trade adjustment assistance: Also emanating from the Senate Finance Committee by Baucus and Sen. Norman Coleman (R-Minn.) was a reintroduction, for the third straight year, their legislation to renew and expand the trade adjustment assistance (TAA) program. TAA gives extra jobless benefits, retraining payments and health care subsidies to American workers who lose their jobs to subsidized foreign imports.

Their new bill, however, would also let entire industries hit by imports and service workers - such as computer techs who lose their jobs to India - seek TAA payments.

The difference between this Congress and the last was also summed up by two new features of the TAA issue: One is the bill will at least get a hearing, because Democrat Baucus now runs the committee.
Mexican trucks: The Teamsters outlined their agenda on Jan. 8. One cause will be a new attempt to get dangerous Mexican trucks off U.S. roads. NAFTA lets the trucks roll nationwide, even though their brakes don't often work properly, the drivers are over-tired and the trucks frequently lack safety inspections south of the border. Federal courts turned down past Teamster efforts to block the trucks. The union had some success in Congress.

No child: Three top unions, led by the National Education Association, upgraded and expanded a coalition formed in prior years to lobby for rewriting Bush's education law. That measure, the No Child Left Behind Act, comes up for renewal this year. NEA--the nation's largest union, with 3.2 million members--says it is drastically flawed.

Employee Free Choice Act: AFSCME stepped up its lobbying for the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act. Pelosi told the 1.4-million-member union's executive board earlier this year that EFCA, designed to level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and contract negotiations, would come to a House floor vote in the spring.