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The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week to a near four-year low and retail sales rebounded in November, hopeful signs for the struggling economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment aid fell for a fourth straight week, dropping 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 343,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. They are now at their lowest level since early October, and within a hair of territory last seen in early 2008. Another report suggested consumer spending picked up last month despite fears Washington will fail to avoid harsh austerity measures that could trigger [...]

NEW YORK American Airlines pilots on Friday voted to ratify a new union contract, ending a years-long labor dispute and stabilizing American’s parent, AMR Corp, as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy. The contract, approved by nearly three-quarters of the pilots who voted, gives the Allied Pilots’ Association a 13.5 percent equity stake in AMR and offers what the union sees as a path to “industry-standard” pay, union spokesman Dennis Tajer told Reuters. AMR filed for bankruptcy in November 2011, primarily due to high labor costs. It said it needed to cut those costs by $ 1 billion a year. [...]

HONG KONG Chinese labor arbitrators have ruled against the father of a Foxconn worker brain-damaged in a factory accident in southern China, in a case that puts more attention on the labor practices of Apple Inc’s largest contract manufacturer. The case involves Zhang Tingzhen, a 26-year-old engineer who had nearly half his brain surgically removed after surviving an electric shock in October 2011. His plight came to light after Reuters reported that Taiwan firm Foxconn had sent telephone text messages to his family telling them it would cut off funds for his treatment and other expenses if they did not [...]

Nonfarm productivity increased at a much faster clip than initially thought in the third quarter as businesses held the line on hiring even as output surged, with unit labor costs falling at their fastest pace in almost a year. Productivity increased at a 2.9 percent annual rate, the fastest since the third quarter of 2010, the Labor Department said on Wednesday. It had previously estimated that productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at a 1.9 percent pace in the third quarter. In the second quarter, productivity had increased at a 1.9 percent rate. Economists polled by Reuters had [...]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is taking its first legal step to stop months of protests and rallies outside Walmart stores, targeting the union that it says is behind such actions. Wal-Mart late on Thursday filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, or UFCW, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer says are unlawful attempts to disrupt its business. The move comes just a week before what is expected to be the largest organized action against the world’s largest retailer, as a small group of Walmart workers prepare to strike [...]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is taking its first legal step to stop months of protests and rallies outside Walmart stores, targeting the union that it says is behind such actions. Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, or UFCW, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer says are unlawful attempts to disrupt its business. The move comes just a week before what is expected to be the largest organized action against the world’s largest retailer, as a small group of Walmart workers prepare to strike on Black Friday, [...]

The pilot union at AMR Corp , parent of American Airlines, said it will vote on a tentative contract with the bankrupt airline by early December. The board of Allied Pilots Association on Friday approved the agreement-in-principle reached last week as a tentative agreement, which will now be subject to votes by its members, according to a statement on the union’s website. The voting will be completed by December 7 and the results are expected to be announced the same day, Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for APA, told Reuters. AMR, which is trying to reduce costs and emerge from bankruptcy, [...]

JOHANNESBURG Striking miners at Anglo American Platinum’s operations in South Africa have accepted the company’s latest pay offer and are returning to work, a labor leader said on Thursday, bringing an end to two months of labor unrest. The unit of troubled global mining giant Anglo American has been struggling to end the illegal strikes, part of a wave of often violent labor protests that have swept through South Africa’s mines. “All the workers are returning to work,” Evans Ramokga, a strike leader at Amplats, told Reuters. Amplats spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said the management and the labor leaders were scheduled [...]

Labor leaders and heads of progressive-advocacy organizations emerged from a meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday expressing support for the White House’s stance on resolving the so-called fiscal cliff. “It was a very, very positive meeting,” according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Obama is gathering leaders among labor and business behind closed doors this week to garner support for his version of a deficit deal, ahead of talks with congressional leaders on Friday. In a key test, the labor and liberal leaders did not express concern following the White House meeting that Medicare and Medicaid were on the table [...]

Bankrupt AMR Corp has come to terms with its pilots union on language for a new labor deal to be voted on by union members, according to a statement to be released by the union on Friday afternoon. AMR, parent of American Airlines, has been in talks with its pilots as it tries to reduce labor costs and emerge from bankruptcy. A negotiating committee for the union on Friday came to terms with the company on language for a new deal, according to the statement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters prior to its being made public. The [...]