Labor

Here's a story that will make your blood boil: The Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation, are planning a huge art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. There's nothing wrong with a little culture in the Midwest, right? Except when you consider how much they are spending on their little hobby, while resisting spending a fraction as much to simply pay their employees a living wage. Rebecca Solnit's article on the subject will enrage you. She discusses a single painting the family recently bought for $35 million: Read More

The situation casts light on the low-tech backbone of a high-tech project -- the casual laborers who are rounded up by subcontractors, sometimes bused across state borders to job sites and set to work digging ditches. Predominantly Hispanic, they work with few guarantees and often no benefits, and they typically are hesitant to come forward with problems, according to lawyers and advocacy groups. Read More

The Walt Disney Company, the Chevron Corporation and Citigroup have been awarded booby prizes by Swiss non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Read More

From Reuters: Read More

Nike Inc.'s French unit has been placed under judicial investigation as part of a fraud probe linked to its sponsorship of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer club, a judicial official said Tuesday. Read More

Massive monoculture plantations have begun a cascade of changes to Uruguay's economy, environment and culture. Now, the foreign corporations that grow the trees are escalating the process by building massive pulp mills that threatening lives and livelihoods. Read More

The Maryland legislature passed a law Thursday that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending on employee health insurance, a measure that is expected to be a model for other states. Read More

A Pennsylvania judge granted class-action status yesterday to a lawsuit contending that Wal-Mart employees had been pressed to work through breaks and after hours. Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday that it has filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. in federal court in Manhattan, alleging discriminatory behavior in its hiring practices. Read More

The debate over the Fair Share Health Care Fund Act, commonly known as the Wal-Mart bill, has dominated politics in the run-up to the General Assembly, with the retailer arguing that Democrats have unfairly singled out one company and union leaders arguing that workers deserve better treatment. Read More