LABOR

Investor Groups to Act on Sweatshops: A coalition of major investment fund operators said they would use their influence to pressure retailers and manufacturers to do more to weed out sweatshop operators from their supplier networks. Members of the group endorsed the anti-sweatshop campaign of the U.S. Labor Department. The coalition of 10 investment funds--led by Citizens Trust, the Calvert Group and Franklin Research & Development--has about $52 billion in investments. Responding to the coalition’s statement, the National Retail Federation said its members are taking “substantial and aggressive” action against labor law violators.