Free Republic

DENVER – A Saudi Arabian couple accused of keeping an Indonesian woman as a virtual slave have agreed to pay her $64,000 in back wages, according to a court document. If approved by the court, the deal filed Tuesday in federal court would settle a lawsuit by the Labor Department against Homaidan Al-Turki and Sarah Khonaizan and avoid a federal trial. State and federal charges alleged the couple required the woman to cook, clean and care for the couple's five children in suburban Aurora for little or no pay from 2000 to 2004. Prosecutors have also alleged that Al-Turki sexually...

HONOLULU -- The number of people employed in Hawaii grew by 24,400, or 4 percent, during the 12-month period ending in January, according to state figures released Friday. Department of Labor and Industrial Relations director Nelson B. Befitel said Hawaii has now posted the lowest unemployment rate in the nation for the last 21 straight months. The islands' seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January was 2.4 -- the lowest since January 1991. The rate stands in comparison to the 3 percent posted for Hawaii in January 2005. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted employment rate dropped from 5.2 percent in January 2005...

U.S. Department of Labor Awards $4.9 Million in Grants To Improve English Language Skills in the Workplace Grants Will Train Workers in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York and Texas WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced five grants totaling more than $4.9 million to improve English language skills in the workplace. The grants will train approximately 4,400 individuals in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York and Texas. “To succeed in the workplace, workers must know how to communicate in English,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “These $4.9 million in English skills training grants will help thousands of...

Nine counties in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region will receive $37 million dollars to help diversify the economy, and move beyond its reliance on the struggling manufacturing sector. Rochester was one of thirteen regions selected nationally for the new Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development -- or W.I.R.E.D. initiative. The area will get $15 million over three years from the Department of Labor. Another $22 million has been pledged by twenty one local partners, including the Greater Rochester Enterprise, Monroe County, U of R and RIT. The money will be used to attract companies and to train workers in several...

The Labor Department reported that its Producer Price Index, which measures price pressures before they reach the consumer, rose 0.9 percent in December, the biggest increase since a 1.7 percent jump in September. For all of 2005, wholesale prices rose by 5.4 percent. That was the biggest increase since a 5.7 percent increase in 1990... However, core inflation, excluding energy and food, was up a more moderate 1.7 percent in 2005... Retail sales posted a weaker-than-expected 0.7 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department reported, after rising by 0.8 percent in November. "Retailers continue to report good sales momentum in...

WASHINGTON - Job growth slowed in December - following a big hiring spurt in November - with US employers expanding payrolls by just 108,000, underscoring the sometimes choppy path travelled by job seekers. The Labour Department's fresh snapshot of the nation's jobs climate, released on Friday, also showed that the unemployment rate dipped from 5 per cent in November to 4.9 per cent in December, as some people left the labour market for any number of reasons. The 108,000 gain in payrolls registered in December followed a big pickup of 305,000 jobs added in November, according to revised figures released...

AP) The White House on Wednesday promised a full investigation of the West Virginia coal mine disaster that killed 12 people. Congressional Democrats called for hearings to look into both the safety record of the mining company and the Bush administration's policies on mine safety. "We send our prayers and heartfelt condolences to the loved ones whose hearts are broken," President Bush said. "We ask that the good Lord comfort them in their time of need." He praised West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin "for showing such compassion" during the crisis and thanked rescuers "who risked their lives to save those...

Homeland Security's Chertoff urges three-tiered approach to address problemWashington -- Illegal immigration is a severe and growing problem, and the United States is taking aggressive and innovative steps to address it, says U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. In October 18 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chertoff told lawmakers that ending illegal immigration requires tough law enforcement, as well as action to reduce the demand that draws illegal migrants into the country. U.S. officials believe a three-tier comprehensive approach to curbing illegal immigration is necessary, Chertoff added. This approach involves establishing better control of the border, a more...

9 September, 2005 6:41 a.m. EST Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao just declared on FoxNews that one of the good things that will come in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina will be a huge construction boom in the states hit hardest by the storm. "There will be a huge construction boom in the wake of Hurrican Katrina that will create thousands of jobs for Americans."

THE PRESIDENT: I've just received an update from Secretary Chertoff and other Cabinet Secretaries involved on the latest developments in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. As we flew here today, I also asked the pilot to fly over the Gulf Coast region so I could see firsthand the scope and magnitude of the devastation. President George W. Bush stands with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, as he speaks to the media from the Rose Garden of the White House regarding the devastation along the Gulf Coast caused...

Productivity pace up, jobless claims rise Thursday May 5, 9:06 am ET By Tim Ahmann WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. business productivity growth accelerated unexpectedly in the first quarter but labor costs picked up, according to a government report on Thursday that suggested a slight rise in profit and price pressures. ADVERTISEMENT Separately, the government said initial claims for jobless benefits climbed 11,000 to 333,000 last week, slightly above expectations on Wall Street. Nonfarm business productivity, or output per worker hour, rose at a 2.6 percent annual pace in the January-March period after gaining 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the...

WASHINGTON, May 4 - The Bush administration has warned the nation's biggest labor federation that union-run pension funds may be breaking the law in opposing President Bush's Social Security proposals. In a letter on Tuesday to the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the Department of Labor said it was "very concerned" that pension plans might be spending workers' money to "advocate a particular result in the current Social Security debate." The Labor Department also warned the federation that pension plans could be violating their fiduciary responsibilities by suggesting that they might take their investment business away from Wall Street firms that support Mr. Bush's...

WASHINGTON, April 14 - The Bush administration is rapidly expanding audits of the nation's labor unions, citing a need to ferret out and deter corruption. But union leaders assert that those increased efforts are nothing more than crude political retaliation. Pointing to embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the presidents of the ironworkers union and Washington's teachers union, Labor Department officials say the number of audits fell too far in the 1990's and needs to be restored to previous levels. They note that the number of national unions and locals that were audited fell to 206 in 2000,...

FOREIGN workers seeking permanent residency will no longer have to wait several years under a new system implemented by the Department of Labor (DOL), streamlining the labor certification system, reducing the processing time to 45-60 days. Last December 27, DOL issued its final rule on the new labor certification system, “Program Electronic Review Management” or “Perm,” The new regulations take effect on Mar. 28, 2005, with the same DOL unit, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) implementing it. Under Perm, employers must file a new ETA Form 9089, which can be filed electronically. “The current process has been criticized as being...

Oh my God ... how .. how could this be?

Labor Department staff, analyzing statistics from private economists, report in an internal memo that President Bush is likely to do "much better" in Tuesday's election than the polls are predicting. [...] The Labor Department report, obtained by The Associated Press, includes an analysis of economic models that suggest Bush will beat Democrat John Kerry. Titled "In Focus: Predicting the Election Outcome," the memo says, "Nearly every single model has him winning." "Some show the margin of victory being smaller than the models' inherent margin of error, while others report the lead as substantial. And this is without the consideration of...

Thousands of workers in 17 cities across the country protested President George W. Bush’s overtime pay take-away today. Bush’s new overtime pay rules, which took effect Aug. 23, will take overtime pay from a projected 6 million workers. Workers brought boxes of postcards to Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters in Detroit, asking President Bush to take back his overtime pay cut. “The Bush administration is taking food from our families by taking our overtime pay,” says John Goldstein, president of the Milwaukee County Labor Council, which organized a rally of more than 200 people outside the Bush–Cheney headquarters in West Allis, Wis....

Memo Improves Job Protection for Guardsmen, Reservists American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2004 -- Attorney General John Ashcroft and Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao have signed a memorandum of understanding (to ensure that the employment rights of men and women returning from military service are vigorously protected. The memorandum streamlines and strengthens enforcement of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, commonly known as USERRA. Congress passed USERRA to safeguard the employment rights and benefits of service members upon their return to civilian life. "The brave men and women protected by USERRA voluntarily set...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.New Labor Department Report Reflects Bush Administration's Lack of Seriousness in Addressing Problems Facing U.S. Economy The U.S. Department of Labor´s new report, “America´s Dynamic Workforce,” could and should have provided a serious look at the many changes in the rapidly globalizing U.S. economy.  The report is a major missed opportunity. The department´s Bureau of Labor Statistics is a gold mine of information.  No private sector or academic economist can do any serious research without the mountains of data made available by the BLS.  Unfortunately, though the new DoL report is filled...

The History of Labor Day Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means "Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation." Labor Day, the first Monday...