Business/Industry/Finance/Economics

Dun & Bradstreet (www.dnb.com) or Hoover’s Online (www.hoovers.com)
Paid resources for public companies.

Executive Paywatch (www.paywatch.org)
Great AFL-CIO link to use for researching public companies and how much executives are being paid.

Guidestar (www.guidestar.org)
Find out if the company is a non-profit organization.  You can get copies of IRS-990 forms on this site.

Lexisnexis (www.lexisnexis.com)
Research corporate affiliations of large public and private companies. Can purchase via internet or check university or public library for access to the data base.

Living Wage Resource Center (www.livingwagecampaign.org)
Resource site that has tracked the living wage movement and provides materials, and strategies to living wage campaigning. Info on minimum wage movements across states.

Security Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov)
Find out if the company is a public, for profit entity. Search for company filings.

Secretary of State (www.nass.org)
Find out if the company is a private, for profit entity. Get annual reports, merger documents and other filings. This site has links to local state offices. Go to Issues then Business Services. Look under Corporate Registration state by state.

10K  Wizard (www.tenkwizard.com)
Search public company filings. Search within an industry.

Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com)
Basic company profiles and information. Determine whether company is public.

Government/Regulatory/Law/Statistics

Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov)
Provides impartial and accurate data for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics & statistics. Lists wages by occupation and location.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (www.cpsc.gov)
Regulations and laws by product.

Cornell Law School (www.law.cornell.edu)
Great law resource through its Legal Information Institute.

Court Filings (http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov)
Access court filings for a per page fee.

Department of Labor (www.dol.gov)
Useful research reports, visit online public disclosure room, info on various laws enforced by this department including: FMLA, FLSA, Service Contract Act. Look at Compliance Program.

Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov)
Go to http://63.160.3.204/echo/compliance_report.html to check environmental compliance history.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (www.eeoc.gov)
Discrimination facts and guidance, employer compliance, complaints.

Federal Aviation Administration (www.faa.gov)
Data, statistics, compliance and reports for aviation industry.

Federal Communications Commission (www.fcc.gov)
Regulates communications.

First Gov (www.firstgov.gov)
Search engine for government only websites. State and regulatory agencies.

Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov)
Regulates food and drugs. Site has electronic reading room with indexed categories.

FreeERISA.com (www.freeERISA.com)
Check for health and pension plans. Tax returns for company benefit plans. Get full 5500 from Department of Labor.

Government Sites by State (www.statelocalgov.net)
Directory of official state, county and city government websites.

Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (www.iir.berkeley.edu)
Visit the library for news on employment issues.

National Labor Relations Board (www.nlrb.gov)
Check on unfair labor practice charges, election history.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html)
Find out complaints against a company.

Pubic Records (www.brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp)
Lists free state and local records nationwide.

Public Records (www.knowx.com)
Paid public records if can’t be gotten for free, many lost costs searches nationwide.

State Public Utility Commissions (www.naruc.org)
Links to government agencies that regulate utilities.

Tax Assessor and Recorder of Deeds (www.netronline.com)
Find out property records for every county in US.

USA gov (www.usa.gov)
Overall government access website.

People/Maps

Mapquest (www.mapquest.com)
Indispensable for plotting home visits and charting multiple worksites.

Merlin (www.merlindata.com)
Search for people. Allows searches by address.

Altavista People Search (www.altavista.com)
Search for people.

Intelius (www.intelius.com)
Search phone numbers, cell phone numbers, address, records, background check, address history and more for a fee.

Google (www.google.com)
Altogether great search engine. Look at various people search sites.

 

Political

Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org)
Find out about campaign donations in federal races.

Follow the Money (www.followthemoney.org)
Find out about campaign races in state races.

Federal Election Commission (www.fec.gov)
Regulates and enforces financing of federal elections.

 

News/Media/General Research

Business Journals (www.bizjournals.com)
Directory of local business publications.

CEO Express (www.ceoexpress.com)
Links for daily news & information, business research.

Corporate Research Project (www.corp-research.org)
Nonprofit that helps community, environmental and labor groups do research.

FAST (www.fast-raa.com)
Assists unions with corporate research. Publishes The Manual of Corporate Investigations.
Need to be a member.

Find Articles (www.findarticles.com)
Locate articles in magazines from a variety of topics.

Internet Public Library  (www.Ipl.org)
Search by subject, great search engine for relevant websites and publications.

Labor Net (www.labornet.org)
Global labor news.

Newslink (www.newslink.org)
Worldwide directory of newspapers and other media.

Surfwax (www.surfwax.com)
Another search engine. Can locate news by topic and other features.

UALE (www.uale.org) 
Go to the links section to find a Labor Education Center in your area. Labor Education Centers provide a great resource for research, organizing support, training and labor connections.

Wall Street Journal (www.wallstreetjournal.com)
Company and industry news, good archival data.