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Raani Corp., the firm supervising a Chicago-area temporary worker who was scalded in its factory, says the man failed to take “proper precautions.”

WEST CHICAGO, Ill. — Teachers in a suburban Chicago school district have given notice they could strike as early as Jan. 7.The Daily Herald in Arlington Heights reports teachers in West Chicago Elementary District 33 voted earlier this month to file their intent to strike.

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Text Story | Timeline | Radio Story | Charts | ConversationHOST: It sounds like a story you might hear out of Bangladesh or another far-away place. A factory worker suffers horrible burns on the job. His bosses refuse to call an ambulance as he screams in pain.

The story behind Carlos Centeno’s death underscores the burden faced by some of America’s 2.5 million temporary, or contingent, workers. The growing but mostly invisible group of laborers often toil in the least desirable, most dangerous jobs.

Public employees say they're willing to chip in more of their salaries toward their retirements if the state of Illinois can guarantee that it'll fully fund state pensions.A coalition of unions called We Are One Illinois released a study Wednesday analyzing two pension proposals before lawma

It's the funding nightmare that keeps Illinois politicans up at night. The state pension shortfall is a $97 billion lump of coal in all our stockings. So how did we get here? WBEZ chronicles the decades of inaction and ineptitude that led to the current crisis.