"That's one labor relationship they've been able to cultivate, " he said.

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It truly is a national tragedy that the auto industry did not develop a mutually beneficial labor management relationship decades ago.

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But Clinton's own relationship with organized labor -- a traditional bedrock of Democratic support -- has not always been harmonious.

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All he was was a relationship to his labor for his master.

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In the process of building this symbiotic relationship between politicians and labor unions, a whole new class of unelected officials, namely labor leaders, has come to the fore.

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But even to be thinking of the relationship in those terms is unusual, and points to probably the greatest stress in the relationship between Clinton and labor since 1993's bitter fight over the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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One pole of observers believes the relationship is tenuous at best, while the other believes the labor impasse is a way for the NFL to keep relevant in the news cycle and that the relationship is friendlier than the two sides are letting on.

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This rule would violate those confidentiality requirements, Lotito said, because employers may have to identify a relationship with any law firm engaged in labor-relations work, whether or not the firm was hired for that purpose by that particular client.

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In its most extreme interpretation, the rule would require a company that hires a labor-law firm to evaluate a potential acquisition with unionized operations, say, to report the relationship even if that blows its cover on secret due diligence activities.

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