As firefighters, nurses, emergency workers, flight attendants and other working people enjoy surging popularity following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, unions are highlighting "America's Workers: Heroes Every Day" at the AFL-CIO's 24th biennial convention this week.

At the entrance to the convention hall is a giant "wall of heroes," reminiscent of the Vietnam War memorial, that lists the hundreds of union members killed on the job during the Sept. 11 attacks. Inside the hall, speakers such as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are calling for fair treatment of all workers in the aftermath of the attacks. Too often, they say, working people have been left behind in the new global economy, have their rights violated when they seek to organize on the job and are bearing the brunt of the current economic recession - while corporations receive government bailouts.

About 1,000 delegates representing the 13 million members of AFL-CIO unions are participating in the convention, along with hundreds of local workers and community leaders. While honoring those who died on Sept. 11, delegates also are participating in fundraising efforts to help those who have lost their jobs, such as the thousands of hotel and restaurant workers currently unemployed in Las Vegas due to the downturn in tourism.

Other sessions at the convention focus on the contributions of immigrants and the need to strengthen the rights of immigrant workers, the campaign to stop "fast track" and other unfair trade measures and the 2002 elections.

The AFL-CIO is carrying regular updates from the convention on its website: http://www.aflcio.org

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