Employer-Paid

West Coast companies and their workers are trying a new benefit: direct primary care

Economy affects employers benefits decisions

CenturyLink Inc. workers in 13 western states have voted to authorize a strike if union leaders can't reach a new contract with the communications company.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday announced that he had vetoed legislation that would have provided overtime pay, meal breaks and other labor protections to an estimated 200,000 caregivers, nannies and house cleaners in California.

The union contract between longshoremen and the companies that operate six grain terminals in the Pacific Northwest expires Sunday, threatening to disrupt shipments of wheat, corn and soybeans to Asia as the weight of last year's violent protests in Longview, Wash., bears down on negotiations.

Between August 2011 and August 2012, industrial employment in Massachusetts slightly dropped as it now employs 362,968 workers at 8,509 manufacturers, according to the 2013 Massachusetts Manufacturers Register, an industrial directory published annually by Manufacturers' News Inc. in Evanston, Ill.