These rules were promulgated as a gift to organized labor as they slipped out of town without any thought as to what it meant for business and how they would comply with it.

The ergonomics regulations issued in the eleventh hour of the Clinton administration make work illegal in the workplace.

Senator Nickles and Senator Lott have talked, and it's Senator Nickles' expectation that he will be budget chairman next year.

When foreign investors enter Vietnam, they must follow the country's labor rules. If they don't, the Vietnamese government has the responsibility to enforce the law or expel the company. The government has to protect the worker. The unions that represent workers in factories of foreign and joint-stock companies are weak. They don't have the strength to stand up to the management.

This has taken so long and been so labor-intensive this year that the thought of having to start all over again with a new vendor, and a new format that we don't know about, is just terrifying. I'm just hoping they've worked out all the kinks this year.

I thought I was just having false (labor) pains again.