If the Detroit automakers are to win over Congress this week, it may require big cost-saving concessions from the United Automobile Workers.

The United Automobile Workers president will testify to Congress this week, but many lawmakers may say that unions have exacerbated Detroit’s problems.

Germany’s most powerful union, IG Metall, reached a modest wage deal with employers in the flagship engineering sector.

Labor unions, delighted to have a friend in the White House, plan to push for legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize.

Members of the machinists union ended a strike that cut the Boeing Company’s profits and stalled airplane production.

The Boeing Company and the machinists union may have a deal on a new contract that could end a 52-day strike.

Negotiations are to resume, more than one month after the walkout began.

The Italian airline warned unions saying that flights might have to be canceled for lack of fuel and that some workers would be laid of.

Already facing rising labor costs, corporations doing business in China are now under a Sept. 30 deadline to let their workers unionize.

In struggling industries like automobiles and airlines, the bargaining power of unions has been limited by the weak positions of their employers. By contrast, Boeing is strong.