Last month, House Republicans voted almost unanimously to adopt a 2012 budget that would represent the most radical down-to-up income redistribution in U.S. history. The budget would cut some $4.3 trillion in benefits, generally over a seven-year period, and mostly in the areas of Medicare, Medicaid and health care reform, also known as the Affordable Care Act.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who wrote the budget proposal, claims its intent is to reduce the deficit. However, his proposal, in addition to imposing $4.3 trillion in cuts, also calls for $4.2 trillion in corporate tax cuts, exemptions and new tax loopholes – meaning the proposal’s effect on the deficit would be negligible while the rich would get richer and key health care programs would be gutted.

The Ryan Republican budget would hit the nation’s neediest citizens particularly hard. Medicare would no longer exist as we know it, and seniors would be asked to pay for up to 85 percent of their health care costs – a grim diagnosis that would force many into poverty.

Medicaid is a program that primarily serves children of lower-income families, pregnant women and people with disabilities. The GOP budget would turn Medicaid into a block-grant program and would cap its growth rate to the level of inflation. But because health care costs will rise at a faster rate than inflation, states would be forced to reduce the number of people eligible for Medicaid, and an estimated 11 million Americans would lose benefits.

The Affordable Care Act – a key focus of CWA during the past two to three years – would see important provisions entirely defunded. (Not surprisingly, Ryan receives more money in contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries than any other private sector.)

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Ryan Republican budget would cost this country nearly two million private-sector jobs, because of the steep cuts and loss that flow through private companies.

And what would the loss of federal income combined with the loss of jobs mean for already cash-strapped states? It would mean that states would have to raise taxes or cut services while at the same time dealing with a loss of tax revenue from those who are unemployed. That, in turn, could cause states to do more of what they already are doing this year: make public employees the scapegoats for their problems and work even harder to deny them collective bargaining rights and a voice in the workplace.

At press time, some Republicans were backing away from the Ryan plan – but another dangerous proposal is lurking in the U.S. Senate. To learn more, watch this video.

The White House this week reiterated its determination to press forward with trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and legislation is expected to face mark-up in Congress this summer.

The disappointing announcement foreshadows a fierce battle between labor and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has pledged to step up its lobbying and advertising campaign in favor of the agreements.

We at CWA will intensity our efforts to point out flaws in the Colombian agreement in particular. The agreement and unenforceable action plan fail to secure collective bargaining rights for Colombian workers and fail to protect Colombian union leaders who stand up for bargaining rights from murder; between 2005 and 2009, more trade unionists were murdered in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined.

Already, CWA members across the country are actively opposing the proposal, delivering hand-written letters to members of Congress and educating our colleagues and communities about what a backward step the agreement would be. Workers in Colombia are classified out of existence by being named “cooperatives.” As a result, they have no bargaining rights or social security rights.

Leading House Democrats have written President Obama and urged him to require Colombia to take credible, achievable steps to comply with internationally recognized labor rights; protect unionists and other rights activists from violence, attacks and threats; and break with its long history of antagonism toward labor.

“One of the most important ways we can safeguard the ability of American families to make a living and keep their jobs is by guaranteeing they are not in competition with workers in other countries whose wages are kept low not simply because their countries are poor but because they lack the essential democratic rights that American workers have to improve their standards of living – the right to speak out, to protest, to organize unions, to bargain collectively and directly with their employers, and to freely support political efforts to improve their economic condition,” the members wrote Obama. “Colombia, sadly, stands out as a country where wages are kept low and workers are repressed through widespread violence against employees trying to better their lot.”

As many state and federal lawmakers try to crush workers’ rights, CWA and its allies are rapidly building momentum and networks, as CWA’s fourth “virtual town hall” phone call illustrated Tuesday night.

About 2,000 CWA members around the country listened as CWA leaders, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka and four CWA activists updated campaigns to fight back, including more than 100 May Day events around the country last Sunday that brought together immigrant and workers’ rights activists.

“We’re uniting like never before,” CWA President Larry Cohen said. “We’re building unity with those who agree that workers’ rights are human rights. Now more than ever there’s an opportunity to build a broader movement, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Ebony Martin, a steward and legislative-political chair for CWA Local 4320, described standing-room-only training sessions for people learning to circulate petitions to overturn Ohio’s new union-busting law. And she looked forward to a major rally tonight, May 5, at the state capitol.

“The momentum that is building in Ohio is unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Martin said. “People are fed up, and I don’t just mean union members. Governor John Kasich’s agenda is hurting everyone, except of course corporations and the rich. They’re getting more tax breaks than ever.”

In Florida, Local 3179 President Steve Sarnoff said CWA has been part of an “army of activists” that, so far, has helped prevent passage of a long list of anti-union, anti-worker bills. Florida’s legislative session ends Friday night, and activists are working around the clock to keep the proposals from becoming law, he said.

“Many of these proposals are so unacceptable to common decency that many moderate Republicans could not and would not support them,” Sarnoff said. “We have a history of supporting those candidates that support us, without regard to party. These men and women have withstood attack after attack, threat after threat from the governor and the Republican national leadership.”

At the State University of New York at Stony Brook, officials waged a bitter anti-union campaign over 10 years to try to stop research assistants from organizing. The 685 RAs finally prevailed, joining CWA Local 1104 and bargaining a first contract.

“Despite our employer stonewalling us at the bargaining table, our group held together and waged a tenacious contract campaign based largely on direct action,” RA and organizer Adam Jacobs said. “We built coalitions, organized large demonstrations, confronted top administrators at their formal events, and we occupied an administrator’s office. Through collective bargaining, we won a 2 percent raise, the waiver of an unjust annual student fee, better dental and vision benefits, and a fair grievance and arbitration procedure.”

In New Mexico, workers are celebrating a huge victory: A state Supreme Court ruling saying anti-union Gov. Susana Martinez abused her power by illegally trying to dismantle the Public Employee Relations Board. The Court ordered to rehire the fired members and stay out of the board’s business.

“A coalition of unions, public and private sector, took Governor Martinez to court, and we won,” said CWA Local 7076 Executive Vice President Sue Wenzel. “We also won in the court of public opinion. We showed what we can accomplish when we stick together.”

Trumka told the CWA activists that he’s inspired by what they’ve done, as he’s been inspired “by the energy and activities that we’ve been seeing across the country.”

“It’s really made me proud, and more optimistic about our future than I’ve been in a long time,” he said. “As governors in some states have come after us with the most vicious assaults in decades, we’ve stood up and said, ‘No more, no way, we’d had enough.'”

To hear the May 3 call and any of the three previous town hall conversations, go to www.cwaaction.org