The U.S. labor secretary joined congressional leaders, three governors and a big-city mayor on Wednesday in pushing shipping lines and the dockworkers' union to settle a contract dispute that has led to months of turmoil and cargo backups at 29 West Coast ports.
Legal & Regulatory
Ireland says China agrees to lift ban on Irish beef
China has agreed to lift its ban on Irish beef, Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Friday, making it the only European country to be allowed to export beef to both the United States and China.
Strike at Brazil plant catches General Motors off guard
General Motors Co was caught by surprise on Friday by a strike at its Brazilian car factory as workers protested a planned furlough and layoff of hundreds of staff, in the latest labor disruption in the nation's slumping auto industry.
Contract negotiators for U.S. West Coast ports reach tentative deal
A group of shipping companies and a powerful dockworkers union clinched a tentative labor deal on Friday after nine months of negotiations, settling a dispute that disrupted the flow of cargo through 29 U.S. West Coast ports and snarled trans-Pacific maritime trade with Asia.
Shell says no agreement in U.S. refinery strike talks
Lead U.S. oil company negotiator Shell Oil Co said face-to-face negotiations on Friday with the United Steelworkers union (USW) failed to yield an agreement to end the 20-day-old U.S. refinery strike.
Latest News
U.S. oil refinery managers are going to the mats, literally, during the biggest fight with union workers in 35 years, bedding down for a third strike week that experts and some employees say raises concerns over safety and operations.
A former boss of HSBC, Stephen Green, has stepped down from his position with a financial services lobby group after allegations that the bank helped people dodge taxes.
France's lower house of parliament approved a law on Saturday letting shops open more often on Sundays, the latest measure in the government's pro-growth bill intended to lift the sluggish economy.
Labor Secretary Tom Perez will travel to California to help broker an agreement between shipping companies and dockworkers in a dispute that has led to a partial shutdown of ports along the U.S. West Coast, the White House said on Saturday.
Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM.N) push to persuade workers at its Beaumont, Texas refinery to sign a five-year contract, nearly twice as long as the last one, is part of an effort to avert labor stoppages during a possible expansion that could make it the largest such plant in the United States, sources familiar with refinery operations said.
China's regulators are targeting foreign firms, a majority of respondents said in a survey by an American business lobby, citing protectionism among the top concerns for their operations in the world's second largest economy.
British bank HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) admitted on Sunday failings by its Swiss subsidiary, in response to media reports it helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets.
When a series of big U.S. companies last year moved to reincorporate abroad in inversion deals, some Republican lawmakers and tax policy critics blamed the high U.S. corporate tax rate. Lowering it, they said, would keep companies from fleeing the country.
The United Steelworkers union said on Saturday the strike by U.S. refinery workers is expanding to two more plants early on Sunday due to unfair labor practices by oil companies.
