On Saturday, as news of the deal between business and labor broke, Mr. Rubio sounded a similar note of caution, sending a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warning him against "excessive haste" in changing immigration law.
There are several factors that pushed these children to work: poverty; cultures, for various reasons, that tolerate child labor; broken families; death of parents; large family size and as a result, inability to support the family; early marriage, especially in the cases of female domestics and prostitutes.
But several current and former Wal-Mart employees confirmed in interviews that violations of state law on child labor and breaks were a recurring problem at many understaffed Wal-Mart stores.
"Many years ago, I created this industrial engineering system for labor, which breaks all jobs into an hourly basis and is designed to minimize fixed costs," Mr. Geller says.
At home, the division of labor roughly breaks down into Mr. Dotolo minding the day-to-day operation of the restaurant, including working the line every night, and Mr. Shook handling the catering and much of the business side (though he, too, works the line at least once a week, to stay in practice).
The strike, involving 3,300 workers, began last weekend after talks on a new labor contract broke down.
With their labor contracts broken, these companies would be freed of their legacy costs, allowing buyers to step in.
Mr. Gephardt, who is close to organized labor, has broken with the leadership council on trade and other matters.
Fiscal discipline and pro-market changes to liberalize labor contracts, break union wage bargaining power and curb welfare and pensions are the only road to salvation, he argued.
There has been no direct contact between the league and the players since Nov. 10, when labor talks broke down and Commissioner David Stern declared that negotiations were over.
