Employees at SIU School of Medicine protest the school’s assertion that they are no longer in the AFSCME Local 370 union. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE A group of unionized employees at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield claims the school is illegally trying to force them out of their union. With signs, chants […]
labor
Posted inNews
Does FutureGen have a future?
With U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois looking on, Ken Humphreys, CEO of the FutureGen Alliance, signs a labor agreement on Monday to provide union labor for the FutureGen project planned in a rural area outside Jacksonville. The agreement may signal that the long-delayed project is moving forward. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois is one […]
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Does UIS stiff laborers?
A group of union workers at the University of Illinois Springfield claims many of their non-union counterparts got raises above the university’s own limits. The workers also claim UIS pays support staff nearly a third less than the same jobs at the university’s flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign. The claims come amid a round of wage […]
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AFSCME under siege
What would drive a crowd of unionized state employees to boo the very governor they helped elect? The answer is about $83 billion of pension underfunding, a broken labor contract and a lot of jobs in jeopardy. When Gov. Pat Quinn stood before a crowd of fellow Democrats and union members on Governor’s Day at […]
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Non-union company wages labor war on three fronts
A non-union contractor suing Springfield School District 186 for rejecting the company’s construction bid last month has filed a second lawsuit over a related matter – this time in Effingham County courts, solely against the Illinois Department of Labor and its recently dismissed director, Catherine Shannon. It’s the newest approach – one of three so […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The epic labor struggle in the ‘Decatur war zone’
As the 19th century prepared to turn into the 20th, a cataclysmic confrontation between labor and management occurred in the steelmaking town of Homestead, Pa., pitting the wealthy Carnegie Steel Co. against one of the strongest unions of the day. The workers lost, setting the stage for exploitation, miserable working conditions and depressed wages that […]
