strikes

March 5, 2013 - Declining coal production is hurting Appalachia's economy, which was already in rough shape. Scholars are looking at Wales, which lost its coal economy in the 1980s, for examples for how Appalachia might address its economic future.

January 2, 2013 - Walmart founder Sam Walton admitted in his autobiography that he was too "chintzy" to pay his employees well, and the corporate culture he created is taking a heavy toll on workers in the retail supply chain. Will consumers consider the people who make the products they buy?

November 19, 2012 - The Arkansas-based retail giant wants the National Labor Relations Board to block Black Friday protests organized by a group backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, which is also supporting striking Walmart workers.

October 15, 2012 - In the hope that we are seeing a major turning point in the relationship between Wal-Mart and its workforce, it is worth looking back at the company's record to recall just how bad its behavior has been.

October 10, 2012 - Demonstrators are expected to protest Walmart's treatment of its workers outside its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters Wednesday, Oct. 10, bringing home a message that has been getting louder and louder across the nation and beyond.

September 17, 2012 - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his administration's school leaders have come perilously close to sounding like one of those Mississippi legislators back in 1985 who dealt with a statewide teachers' strike by giving them a pay raise -- but at the cost of a provision that prevented them from ever striking again.

August 6, 2012 - The number of workplaces with egregiously bad safety records has doubled in the past year. OSHA's effort to focus on these employers is laudable -- but is it enough?