Labor Dispute | featured news

With its long vacations, short hours and myriad workers' rights, France has a reputation for being a hard place to do business. Now add this to the mix: A law working its way through parliament would grant amnesty to workers who have ransacked their company's offices or threatened their bosses during a labor dispute.

The National Hockey League and NHL Players' Assn. reached tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement early Sunday morning, opening the way for training camps to open later this week after both sides put on paper and ratify the terms of the complex agreement.

On the ice, the National Hockey League has never been more competitive than over the course of its last collective bargaining agreement, which began with the 2005-06 season. A different team has won the Stanley Cup each season, ranging from big-market clubs like Los Angeles and Chicago to small ones such as Pittsburgh and Raleigh. A total of 12 different teams reached the finals during the seven-year CBA.

Union workers at Raley's supermarket chain, which operates more than 100 stores in California and Nevada, went on strike Sunday after last-ditch efforts to reach a new contract failed.

The 48-day-old NHL lockout took on a more ominous tone Friday when the league officially canceled the Winter Classic, the annual outdoor game that was expected to draw more than 114,000 fans to Ann Arbor's Michigan Stadium to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Detroit Red Wings.

Chicago public school teachers began voting on Tuesday on whether to ratify an agreement with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that suspended a strike in the third-largest U.S. school district.

NFL officials ended their labor dispute with the league by approving a new eight-year contract with a 112-5 vote Saturday, then hustled off to the airport to get to work. Next stop, stadiums around the country. And, the officials hope, anonymity.