Workers from Chicago fast food and retail outlets strike for improved wages, benefits and work conditions, as well as the right to unionize. (Aaron Cynic)   On a normal day, Sonia Acuña, a petite 41-year old mother of four, puts on her bright red McDonald’s cap and reports to work at a branch of the giant hamburger chain in Chicago’s main rail terminal, Union Station. But today, in cold and drizzl...

The long hours Americans put in at work aren't just stressing us out, according to a new study by Dr. Youngjoo Cha of Indiana University—they're also helping keep our workplaces gender-segregated. The study, “ Overwork and the Persistence of Gender Segregation in Occupations ,” published in the journal   Gender & Society, found that “[T]he norm of overwork in male-dominated workplaces and the ...

Rick Perry's attempts to woo Illinois businesses, such as this ad in Crain's Chicago Business, could prompt Illinois to give corporations costly tax breaks.   Texas Gov. Rick Perry rode into Chicago this week in an effort to lasso Illinois-based businesses and herd them to the Lone Star State. At a press conference on Monday , Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met the visit with derision. "I hope when he...

Joe Griego figures the bull was done with him in about 10 seconds. It was the longest 10 seconds of his life. On Nov. 22, 2008, he was finishing his shift at Tres Hermanos Dairy in Veguita, south of Albuquerque, when a recalcitrant bull refused to return to its pen. When Griego turned to ask a co-worker to help, the bull took advantage. “They say bulls are cowards,” he says. “They’ll attack when y...

The April 18 fertilizer plant explosion In West, Texas. (Erich Schlegel/Getty Images).   On Friday, as cable news networks sought desperately to fill airtime while waiting for the latest news in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, a friend asked me, “How come there’s no manhunt for the  owner of the Texas factory , which did far more damage than the Boston bombers?” He was right to wonder. The  ...

Some 500 union members and supporters marched in Baltimore April 20 to demand that government-sponsored commercial developments include good jobs for the city's working families, and to celebrate a new deal for unionized labor at the city's Horseshoe Casino development. (United Workers)   BALTIMORE–Local labor organizations are claiming victory this week after brokering a pair of agreements that w...