PALMDALE, CA—A Japanese company’s much-celebrated plans to build a light-rail manufacturing plant here appear all but dead after months of clashes with local labor unions and community groups. Kinkisharyo International said it is now looking at factory sites outside California.
WASHINGTON—The National Labor Relations Board will decide whether employers must permit employees to use workplace e-mail in their collective action to improve wages, hours and working conditions. The decision could hand unions a major weapon in their efforts to unionize.
BIRMINGHAM, AL—A worker’s complaint about not being able to pass out pro-union literature and union authorization cards near the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant here was considered this week during a three-day hearing conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
TORONTO—Canadian auto workers begin voting next Monday on whether they want Unifor, the country’s largest private-sector union, to represent them in contract negotiations with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc.
CHATTANOOGA, TN—In the wake of Friday’s stunning defeat among Volkswagen’s workers here, the UAW must soberly assess whether it can effectively organize any foreign-owned assembly plant in a region where organized labor has been regarded as an undesirable force for generations.
