Economy

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?

December 20, 2012 - Members of the International Longshoremen's Association honored a picket line at the Port of Charleston that was protesting the arrival of a ship bearing Walmart clothing made at a Bangladesh factory where over 100 workers died in a November fire. Dozens of truck drivers and other workers also turned around after learning of the work stoppage.

December 19, 2012 - A picket will be held at the Port of Charleston protesting a shipment of clothing from the Bangladesh factory where over 100 workers died in fire last month. The action comes days before a nationwide vigil in solidarity with workers at Walmart throughout its supply chain.

December 18, 2012 - Managers bankrupted Irving, Texas-based Hostess and then -- when bakery workers struck, refusing another round of concessions -- blamed the workers for the company's decision to liquidate. What can workers do when a private-equity firm is driving a company into the ground?

December 17, 2012 - The shocking massacre of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut last week has led to calls for policy changes to curb gun violence. But in order to confront the problem honestly, we need to remember that the most likely victim of the U.S. violence epidemic is an African American living in poverty in the South.

December 14, 2012 - The economic downturn is pushing more U.S. children into poverty, and it's no longer a problem limited mostly to Southern states.

December 13, 2012 - Today's right-to-work movement can trace its origins to the Jim Crow and Red Scare South.