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Sponsored by the Milwaukee Building & Construction Trades Council and the AFL-CIO, National Apprenticeship Week celebrates leaders in business, labor, and education and allows them to demonstrate their support for apprenticeship programs.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with the president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, about union strategies following the midterm elections.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

As we celebrate millions of service members’ selfless sacrifice this Veterans Day, the Union Veterans Council is fighting to defend their economic rights and dignities when they return home. Join that fight today and be a voice for working-class veterans.

There was plenty of punditry plastered across cable news last week. But, as the dust settles, there is one story that has come to define this election: working people standing together to make a difference. The labor movement unleashed an unprecedented political program this year.

Organized labor’s record voter mobilization efforts this year, which started earlier than ever before for a mid-term election, emphasized pocketbook issues and – says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka – will produce huge “momentum at the ballot box” on Nov. 6.