Far Labor

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday welcomed the resumption of high-level contacts with Israel, even though he has not been allowed to take part in them. Israeli sources disclosed Friday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had met two days earlier with Ahmed Korei, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, and that other such talks had taken place before Israel's Jan. 28 general election.

United Parcel Service of America Chairman James Kelly signaled a new willingness to reach an agreement to end the 11-day Teamsters strike, saying Thursday that the company may revamp its pension proposal to make it more acceptable to striking truckers. "We think the pension issue is very important," Kelly said in a conference call from Atlanta with reporters while UPS and Teamsters negotiators were engaging in informal talks.

Although its contract with the Union-Tribune Publishing Company expired at midnight Tuesday, the union representing 77 drivers, van loaders and newsprint helpers doesn't plan an immediate strike, a spokesman said. Rick Aceves, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local Union 542, said a new round of talks with Union-Tribune lawyers is scheduled for Friday. "It would show poorly if we went out at midnight (Tuesday night)," Aceves said. "We'll wait for the meeting on Friday."

Former New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez believes last week's election of Bud Selig as baseball commissioner will hurt labor relations. Speaking last week at a panel on baseball in the 21st century, Hernandez said he didn't follow baseball for four or five years after his retirement following the 1990 season, but was glad to see the game rebounding after the 1994-95 strike and World Series cancellation.

JERUSALEM - Israel's political left cheered when newly installed Labor Party head Shelly Yachimovich led the faction from near-extinction two years ago to its current No. 2 ranking in polls for next month's Knesset elections. The feisty former journalist was heralded for her foresight in focusing on Israel's high cost of living long before massive social inequality protests swept the nation last year. But since rising to the helm of Israel's oldest major political party, Yachimovich, 52, has stirred dissent within the ranks over her latest unconventional strategy: a lurch toward the political right in hopes of drawing centrist and even conservative voters to the historically liberal Labor.

The U.S. economy grew at a weaker-than-expected 4% annual clip during the final three months of 2003, the government reported Friday, renewing concerns that business caution may slow the recovery and delay a snapback in hiring. Growth of the gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the United States, was impressive by historical standards.

He ducked it cleanly during his campaign, but President Clinton announced Wednesday that he will duck it no longer. On April 2 in Portland, Ore., Clinton will plunge himself into a quick, one-day primer on the Northwest's long and troubling deadlock over its ailing forests and struggling logging communities. With national lumber prices soaring, rural unemployment high in the region, the U.S.

Last May, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka stood a few blocks from the White House and issued a stern warning: Union members could not be counted on as the Democrats' foot soldiers anymore. "If leaders aren't blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families' interests, then working people will not support them," he said in a speech at the National Press Club. Flash forward to today: Labor appears squarely back in the Democrats' corner for the 2012 election — pushed there in large part by Republican attacks on collective bargaining rights for public employees.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party has suffered a stunning defeat in a parliamentary by-election in a rural Welsh constituency, running third behind the victorious Liberal Party and the principal opposition Labor Party, which finished a close second. Liberal and Labor spokesmen proclaimed the vote an indication that the public has begun to turn in numbers against Thatcher's tough economic policies and the prospect of continuing high unemployment under her leadership.

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to let stand a Dallas curfew law should energize law enforcement agencies in other cities trying to get a handle on escalating teen-age crime. In particular, it should encourage a promising effort in East Los Angeles. Three Texas youths and their parents had challenged the Dallas curfew, generally requiring those under 17 to be off the streets after 11 p.m. on weekdays and after midnight on weekends.