Employee-Paid

The White House is urging dockworkers and shipping companies to reach agreement "as quickly as possible" on a contract extension for East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers whose existing pact expires this week.

Blindsided by a new law weakening union rights in Michigan, organized labor is preparing to target Republican governors in politically important states up for re-election in 2014 part of a renewed offensive against perceived anti-union policies.

Forty-eight percent of Americans report that they are living paycheck to paycheck.

Michigan acted swiftly compared with Indiana and Wisconsin, where votes to curb union rights followed weeks or months of discussion.

Clerical workers and longshoremen at the nation's largest port complex will return to work Wednesday, eight days after they walked out in a crippling strike that prevented shippers from delivering billions of dollars in cargo across the country.

Pacific Northwest grain terminal companies have given the longshore union extra time to accept what they say is their best and final offer.