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Citizen Action
Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
6:58pm
Thu Sep 13, 2012

Forum On Women In The Workplace Highlights Role Of Unions In Fight For Fair Employment Practices

Unions have been crucial in helping women get rights, better pay and benefits in the workplace, panelists at a forum in Waukegan stressed Wednesday evening.

With a backdrop of teacher strikes in Chicago and Lake Forest, this forum focused not on endorsing candidates for office, but on dispelling "ignorance" too often associated with unions, according to an organizer with the pro-union group Industrial Workers of the World.

“We are in the fight for our life,” said Helen Ramirez-Odell, a panelist at the forum who worked nearly 44 years as a Chicago Public Schools nurse and is now a CTU district supervisor. “It’s taken a lot to get teachers to this point.”

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Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
2:29pm
Fri Jun 29, 2012
4 comments

Freeport Jobs To Be Outsourced At Bain Capital Company, Employees Want Romney To Step In

In response to more than 170 impending layoffs at Sensata Technologies, a Bain Capital-owned plant slated to be outsourced, a collection of community, religious, and labor leaders have promised to ban together and fight back to save the Freeport jobs.

“When I found out that my job was going to be shipped overseas to China ... at first I was angry, now just five or six months away from unemployment, I’m scared,” said Cheryl Randecker, a Sensata employee who has worked at the plant for 33 years. “As a single mother, I don’t just worry about myself, I actually worry about my daughter."

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Quick Hit
by Josh Kalven
10:18am
Tue May 11, 2010

Crain's Covers The Payday Loan Reform Bill

Amid the chaos in Springfield late last week, we reported that a much-needed bill to close a loophole in the 2005 Payday Loan Reform Act had passed the Illinois Senate and was on its way to the House.  Today, Crain's covered the story, noting that the House will likely voted on the bill before the end of May and featuring this quote from Citizen Action/Illinois co-director Lynda DeLaforgue: "The agreement is historic in Illinois. ... We will for the first time have set rates on these unsecured loans made to the most vulnerable borrowers.”  Learn more about the damaging loophole here.

Quick Hit
by Josh Kalven
12:28pm
Thu May 6, 2010

Payday Loan Reform Bill On The Move

Our own Adam Doster is on the ground in Springfield today and reports back with some good news: the Illinois Senate last night passed HB 537, a measure that aims to close a destructive loophole in the 2005 Payday Loan Reform Act.  The bill has changed numbers since we wrote about it in March, but our understanding is that the central provisions remain the same:

[I]t would cap interest rates on installment loans at 99 percent APR, index the loans based on a borrower's ability to pay, and would require loans to be paid off in equal monthly installments with no balloon payments.

Adam talked to Citizen Action/Illinois co-director Lynda DeLaforgue today.  She expressed cautious optimism that the bill would make it through the House in the next 48 hours, but added: "With this issue, you never know."

PI Original
by Josh Kalven
11:12am
Wed Apr 7, 2010

Health Care Activists Thank Durbin For Reform Fight (VIDEO)

Health Care

Illinois health care activists came together yesterday evening to thank Sen. Dick Durbin for his leadership in Washington and to celebrate the passage of the Democratic reform package.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
2:09pm
Fri Mar 19, 2010
389 comments

Momentum For Payday Loan Reform Growing

Consumer Protection

The prolonged battle to close a loophole in Illinois' payday lending reform law is gaining momentum as consumer groups have picked up some much-needed support from lawmakers and select industry groups.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
4:18pm
Tue Feb 23, 2010
3 comments

Collateral Damage In The Medical Malpractice Fight

Tort Reform

A recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling did away with a 2005 bill establishing caps on malpractice damages. But it also voided some crucial insurance reforms as well. Will legislators manage to reintstate the latter protections this year?