Labor

The $150,000 in fines so far charged to Los Angeles clothing maker American Apparel for allegedly employing illegal immigrants may be a welcome change from the notorious factory raids by federal agents that led to hundreds of jailed and deported employees. As The New York Times reported on Friday, it suggests a shift in strategy [...]

Somehow, the 5-4 ruling from the Supreme Court earlier today in Ricci v. DeStefano has been turned into a 9-0 ruling against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, according to some conservative critics.
“NOT EVEN ONE JUSTICE APPROVED SOTOMAYER IN RICCI CASE,” blares the headline of a statement from Wendy Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, [...]

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas today leads the conservative wing of the Supreme Court in an unusual decision that rules that plaintiffs in age discrimination suits don’t get the same benefit of the doubt that every other discrimination plaintiff gets.
In concluding that a plaintiff claiming age discrimination must show not only that age was a [...]

Amid the debate over Sotomayor’s supposedly “activist” move joining the per curiam opinion in the reverse discrimination case of Ricci v. DeStefano, there’s been little actual analysis of the legal standards the Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel’s decision was based on.
Although that may be because the panel did not issue a long written opinion [...]

Maybe the proposal was already in the works, but on Wednesday — the same day The Wall Street Journal reported on the problem of Mexican gangs smuggling undocumented immigrants into the country and then holding them hostage — Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) assured Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that he’d introduce a law to help [...]

Congress looks at inefficiencies in international aid program that is a boon to U.S. growers.

Robert Reich, economist and former Clinton administration labor secretary, doesn’t think much of General Motors expected bankruptcy filing today, as the nation’s largest automaker prepares for a de facto government rescue and takeover. If the United States really wanted to help GM, Reich wrote in an op/ed for the Financial Times, it would try a [...]

The indictment yesterday of three Kansas City area employment firms that allegedly smuggled foreign workers into the country to work illegally as “modern-day slaves” suggests the Obama administration is following up on its promise to shift the focus of immigration enforcement to employers most intent on violating the law.
The enormous human trafficking ring allegedly lured [...]

Specifically, Chapter 11. General Motors’ creditors have rejected the latest offer extended to them to facilitate an out-of-court restructuring — a swap of some $27 billion in GM debt for a 10 percent equity stake in the new, reorganized company. Creditors are complaining that union stakeholders were offered a much better deal than they were [...]

When Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) switched parties, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform told me that it could have been worse; Specter was still blocking the Senate from a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act. Today Specter is hinting that he might support a compromise, and the Toomey campaign is firing back through [...]