Labor

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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

Also yesterday, federal mine officials made public records of inspections done at the Sago Mine last year that concluded that mine supervisors had repeatedly failed to uncover dangerous conditions before starting a day's production. Read More

The nation's coal mines have been required to pay only a fraction of the federal fines imposed after deadly accidents since 1999, a USA TODAY analysis shows. Read More

The "union project" was a secret scheme, approved by senior Wal-Mart executives, to pay union members for information about which stores they planned to organize. Read More