The Uncertain HourI've always wondered ...Econ Extra Credit with David BrancaccioRace and EconomyMake Me Smart Daily

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Workers' rights

China's forced-out workers

by Jennifer Pak
Jun 3, 2020
Chinese workers complain that shortened hours or being told to resign are layoffs by another name.
Masked workers labor at a factory in China.
Barcroft Media via Getty Images
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COVID-19

How long should companies give hazard pay?

by Kristin Schwab
May 5, 2020
Most businesses, especially small ones, don’t have a disaster plan for a global pandemic.
Grocery store workers probably didn’t sign up for their jobs thinking they’d be putting themselves in danger, and neither did owners. Above, a worker stocks items in a California grocery store in March.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Workers at Walmart, Amazon and beyond strike for better conditions

by Janet Nguyen
May 1, 2020
Employees are asking consumers to refrain from buying these companies' products or services.
Workers at Amazon — along with several other major companies — went on strike on Friday, calling for better working conditions.
Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
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In China, economy dogged at decade's end

by Jennifer Pak
Dec 25, 2019
China started 2009 weathering the global financial crisis and ends the decade battling slower economic growth and a trade war with the U.S.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace
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Workplace Culture

Threats against unionizing are on the rise — on Twitter

by Meghan McCarty Carino
Oct 1, 2019
The founders of Tesla, Barstool Sports and the publisher of the Federalist have tweeted anti-union threats.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gives an update on the next-generation Starship spacecraft at the company's Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019 in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas.
Loren Elliott/Getty Images
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Workplace Culture

Why labor unions keep shrinking

by Meghan McCarty Carino
Aug 22, 2019
It's not just the shift away from a manufacturing economy.
Labor union members protest Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed budget cuts in 2011.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
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Marketplace Tech Blogs

What does it mean to be "employed" in the gig economy?

by Amy Scott
Apr 19, 2019
A new European law tries to answer that question.
A person uses the Uber app on his iPhone in Times Square in New York City. 
iStock/Getty Images
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Coal boss threatened to shut mines following safety complaints

by Scott Tong
Apr 8, 2019
A secretly recorded speech by Murray Energy boss is at center of a legal dispute.
Robert Murray (L), chairman of Cleveland-based Murray Energy Corp., listens to a colleague after the evening news conference at the command center where it was announced that rescue efforts to drill relief holes to six coal miners trapped 1,500 feet beneath the surfaces are going slower than expected at the nearby Crandall Canyon coal mine on August 9, 2007 near Huntington, Utah.
David McNew/Getty Images
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Labor ruling says employees can only have one boss

by Andy Uhler
Dec 15, 2017
The National Labor Relations Board has overturned an Obama-era ruling that had made it easier for workers at franchise businesses to form unions.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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It's against the law for employers to make you sick. Thank the "Radium Girls" for that

by David Brancaccio and Katie Long
Nov 28, 2017
100 years ago, New Jersey factory workers fought to hold companies accountable for radium poisoning. Their battle led to our labor safety standards today.
The radium paint, which glowed in the dark, was applied to instruments, dials and watch displays that were shipped off to pilots fighting in World War I.
Heinz Dietrich Suppan/Handout
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