Labor in Illinois

1. Teachers at Three Chicago Charter Schools Push to Unionize

Three-quarters of the education staffs at Chicago's Northtown Academy, Wrightwood and Ralph Ellison schools have signed union authorization cards, seeking to become the first unionized charter school teachers in the city, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Illinois Education Labor Relations Board now has 30 days to review and certify the results. According to one teacher at Northtown, staring pay for charter school teachers is roughly the same as for unionized educators, but the school days and school years are longer, meaning more work time for the same pay. Their union would joint the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT). --Chicago Sun-Times (4 April 2009) http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1511088,CST-NWS-union04.article

2. Archie Green, Activist and Folklore Expert, Passes Away

Archie Green, a lifelong labor activist and groundbreaking expert in working-class folklore and culture, passed away at the age of 91 on March 22 in San Francisco. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba under the name Aaron Green, he moved to Los Angeles as a boy and became immersed in union activism and socialist politics. He joined in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and later became a shipwright in San Francisco. After serving in World War II, he became a carpenter, then later enrolled in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to study labor history. Based on research on the music and culture in southern Illinois, he wrote the article "Hillbilly Music: Source and Symbol" in 1965 in the Journal of American Folklore. Finishing his doctoral dissertation at Pennsylvania State University in 1972, Green spent most of his time working in academic and political circles to tout and preserve folklore culture. Green helped to compile folk music in the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He wrote several books, editing "The Big Red Song Book" that compiled song lyrics from various Little Red Songbooks from the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). --New York Times (28 March 2009) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/books/29green.html?scp=2&sq=Archie%20Green&st=cse

3. Illinois Unemployment Rises Again

Illinois state unemployment hit 8.6 percent in February and 9 percent in the Chicago metropolitan area. All twelve metropolitan areas in Illinois saw jobless rates rise, with Rockford the hardest hit by a 5.8 percent increase from January's 8.2 percent to 14 percent in February. Kankakee (12%), Danville (11%), and Decatur (10%) also posted double-digit jobless figures for the month, while the hardest-hit sectors of the economy were professional and business services; trade, transportation and utilities; manufacturing; and retail.--Chicago Sun-Times (1 April 2009) http://www.suntimes.com/business/1505523,CST-NWS-jobs01.article