In a rare move, legislative leaders have agreed to refer pension legislation to a House-Senate Conference Committee. The committee membership, announced on Wednesday, is heavily stacked against workers and retirees.

A Peoria TV station shines a light on long waits at a regional IDES office.

Make sure lawmakers returning to Springfield on Wednesday push for a House vote on SB 2404 without changes and resist pressure to enact sweeping pension cuts.

If billionaire Bruce Rauner thinks bullying attacks on middle class working people, their families and seniors are good politics, he’s even further out of touch with Illinois values than his extreme policies suggest.

House Speaker Michael Madigan refused to allow Rep. John Bradley, sponsor of HB 212, to call the back-pay supplemental appropriation for a vote before the final bill deadline.

"Pass the Cullerton plan now for the best, fairest and most logical shot at pension reform today," the State Journal-Register said in an editorial strongly endorsing union-negotiated SB 2404. "Forget about Madigan's plan."

In a victory for Murray Center residents and their families, a federal judge entered a restraining order to prevent the Quinn administration from moving developmentally disabled individuals out of the facility.

A union-backed plan to address the state’s pension funding crisis could quickly become law if members of the state House press for its adoption.

In a second round of voting on a new union contract with the State of Illinois, AFSCME members resoundingly affirmed the ratification of the tentative agreement reached in late February.

Illinois House Democratic Leader Lou Lang ripped the extreme Chicago Tribune editorial board that backs pension-slashing Senate Bill 1, and the State Journal-Register editorialized for the union-supported compromise Senate Bill 2404.

More than 100 direct-support workers and allies lobbied lawmakers in Springfield to raise wages and improve care for those with developmental disabilities. See inside for photos and news coverage.

AFSCME and other unions are speaking out against Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to eliminate subsidized health care for most city retirees.

Efforts to put the brakes on privatization in the City of Chicago have run into a major obstacle – the City Council’s Rules Committee. Call Committee Chair Dick Mell at 312-744-6825.

Pension-slashing legislation passed the state House, but hope remains for a fair, constitutional solution out of the Senate.

One of the biggest tax loopholes in Illinois allows multinational corporations to avoid taxes on money they make overseas – some $386 million annually.

Thanks to obstruction by Republicans in Congress, massive federal spending cuts are going into effect – and the impact on state and local government employees in Illinois could be substantial.

Workers killed or injured on the job will be remembered this weekend at events throughout the state in observance of Workers’ Memorial Day.

School paraprofessionals in Rockford are speaking out to secure a contract that will help lift them all out of poverty.

Legislation that would close $445 million in wasteful corporate tax loopholes has been introduced with the backing of a dozen lawmakers in the House and Senate.

President Obama has announced a bipartisan group of nominations aimed at allowing the National Labor Relations Board to resume its work – but GOP obstruction threatens to derail the plan.