13 weeks added to jobless benefits
The following is an excerpt of a July 9 letter from U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow to Michigan union leaders:

"I am pleased to report that the President finally signed the 13-week extension of unemployment benefits on June 30. As I wrote to you last month, I worked hard with Sen. Ted Kennedy to lead this critical fight.

"As you know, current law allows for unemployed workers to receive up to 26 weeks of benefits. This extension will add an additional 13 weeks for a total of 39 possible weeks. Individuals that have received unemployment benefits in the past two years and are still unable to find work may apply for this extension. In addition, this extension is also open to individuals that receive benefits at any time between now and next March. For example, someone who has already exhausted their unemployment benefits can apply for an extra 13 weeks of benefits, and someone who starts receiving unemployment benefits between now and anytime until March may apply.

"Over the last six months our nation has lost 324,000 manufacturing jobs. Since the president has been in office, over 3.5 million manufacturing have been lost. More and more families in Michigan and across the country are finding themselves living in poverty and lacking health insurance. For those who have been hit the hardest and cannot find work this 13-week extension will provide critical help to make ends meet."

AFL-CIO to approach vets at election time
WASHINGTON (PAI) - Saying that unionists who are veterans should band together to protect their interests as veterans as well as their interests as workers, the AFL-CIO launched a new union veterans' organization on July 10.

Headed by Building and Construction Trades Department President Mark Ayers, an IBEW member who is a Vietnam veteran, the group will also tell union veterans and other veterans that while it honors Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his record on veterans' issues is not good enough to let them vote him into the White House this fall.

That theme will also be emphasized in TV ads the group began running in 15 media markets in six swing states--including Ohio and Pennsylvania--featuring another Vietnam vet, Jim Wasser of IBEW Local 176 in Kankakee, Ill.

"We'll start by educating our veteran members on votes" by McCain and the presumed Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on issues such as health care, the minimum wage, an expanded GI Bill and GI health benefit funding, Ayers said.

"As veterans, we respect McCain's military service to his country, but not his voting record," added Ayers, whose construction unions include a lot of military retirees and reservists. An estimated 2 million union members are veterans.

The group's criticism includes not just McCain's vote against the larger GI bill--because of concerns it could hamper re-enlistment--but his votes against adding $400 million to the veterans health care budget. McCain also voted against a $1 billion trust fund for military health facilities and against $500 million for military mental health treatment, Ayers added. The military estimates that some 25% of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan need such treatment.

But the AFL-CIO's military vets group, which will continue after the election to lobby lawmakers on veterans' issues, faces the entrenched power of pro-Republican veterans organizations, like the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Those groups see McCain's years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam as a positive. And they see Obama's lack of military service and his party label as an automatic reason to oppose the Illinoisan. To them, all Democrats are suspect.

To counter that tilt, Wasser says, he'll urge vets in the TV ads "that they need to look at the broad picture" about Obama's policies for veterans and their families.

But he admits some vets "will be hard core" to convince, especially "we Vietnam vets who will go to our graves fighting that war--inner demons or not."