WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO union federation called on lawmakers Wednesday to repeal the so-called sequestration that will lead to $85 billion in automatic spending cuts starting Friday, arguing that it was the wisest course both politically and economically.

That sequestration is a stupid idea, AFL-CIO policy director Damon Silvers told...

WASHINGTON -- Advocates for everything from early education and law enforcement funding to workforce training and national park programs pleaded with lawmakers on Monday to hash out a deal to avoid the looming $85 billion "sequester" cuts set to kick in Friday.

Much like the White House, boosters for a...

Armored-car workers in New York City will vote Thursday on whether or not they should join a newly formed labor union that hopes to get a toehold in the world of bank and retail security.

Employees for the international security company Brink's Inc. will take part in the election at...

The idea of increasing the minimum wage and pegging it to inflation received big support from the American public, with few believing the counter-argument that a minimum wage increase would hurt workers by reducing hiring, according to a new survey.

According to the new HuffPost/YouGov poll, 62...

WASHINGTON -- As the White House developed its new proposal to raise the federal minimum wage, there was at least one core constituency of President Obama's that was largely left out of the loop on the plan: organized labor.

Labor unions by tradition are one of the loudest...

WASHINGTON -- With Congress looking to make foreign guest worker programs part of its immigration reform package, advocates for low-wage workers said Tuesday that the programs already in place are rife with abuse and serve as poor models for an expansion or overhaul.

The H-2 visa programs administered...

Kathleen VonEitzen heads into work at 10 p.m. with a long night ahead of her. A trained baker, VonEitzen spends the evening and early morning hours cutting and shaping trays full of dough, shuffling between multiple ovens, and constantly checking her crusts until they're browned just right. She pulls hundreds...

WASHINGTON -- A work safety rule that scientists say would save lives in the construction and mining industries is still caught in red tape at the White House after being sent there for review two years ago.

Known as the silica rule, the measure put forth by the...

WASHINGTON -- After President Barack Obama suggested raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour in his State of the Union speech, rising Republican star Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) quickly joined other prominent GOP lawmakers in denouncing the proposal as bad policy.

"I want people to...

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) only needed a single night's sleep before throwing cold water on one of the most significant proposals put forth by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address Tuesday night: raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour...

WASHINGTON -- One of the largest labor unions in the U.S. will get a bit larger on Thursday, when the 1.5-million strong American Federation of Teachers enters into a new affiliation with the National Federation of Nurses union.

Both unions billed the affiliation as mutually beneficial: The AFT expands its...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama argued in his State of the Union address that it was time to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour and peg it to inflation, so that "no one who works full time should have to live in poverty."

In doing so, Obama...

WASHINGTON -- In a State of the Union address focused on creating middle-class jobs, President Barack Obama called on lawmakers to help pull working Americans out of poverty by raising the federal minimum wage and pegging it to inflation.

Obama's proposal to boost the wage floor to $9 an...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Labor Department has warned North Carolina legislators that their controversial plan to slash unemployment benefits will cost the state $780 million in federal funds and cast a "grievous blow" on the state's working families.

"I have no discretion to stop it," Seth Harris, the department's...

WASHINGTON -- In recent days, multiple news outlets -- from the Washington Post to the Chicago Sun-Times to Bloomberg -- have reported that Chicago businesswoman and Obama fundraiser Penny Pritzker is a top candidate to become the president's next secretary of commerce.

Although it...

WASHINGTON -- As unions and the business lobby meet in talks over immigration reform, the head of the AFL-CIO union federation stressed Thursday that organized labor wants to see a "data-driven solution" in whatever foreign guestworker program Congress produces as part of its comprehensive immigration package.

Each year, tens of...

WASHINGTON -- The announcement Wednesday by the U.S. Postal Service that it would end Saturday delivery of first-class letters has infuriated postal employee unions and set up a struggle with members of Congress, many of whom believe the agency doesn't have the authority to implement service cuts on its own.

WASHINGTON -- The research arm of the U.S. Congress has studied the controversial appeals court ruling striking down President Barack Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, concluding that the decision would have theoretically scuttled scores of presidential appointments stretching back to the Ronald Reagan era....

WASHINGTON -- The appeals court ruling striking down President Barack Obama's recess appointments to the federal labor board is barely a week old, but the business community is already using it to undermine decisions made by the board that had benefited unions.

In the ruling, known as Noel...

WASHINGTON -- As lawmakers on Capitol Hill try to hammer out a comprehensive immigration package, business and labor groups are trying to settle what's historically been a contentious piece of the overall puzzle: what the nation's foreign guest worker programs should look like.

Each year, tens of thousands of foreign...