Illinois Democrats have knocked one of the new Republican governor's top priorities down to an easy defeat. The Illinois House yesterday voted against Bruce Rauner's notion of local right-to-work zones. The issue is highly contentious on its own. But a broader division was also at play.Before we get to the right-to-work debate, it's important to rewind some.

 Prisons chief Donald Stolworthy wrote the contracts contribute to "many of the ills within the system,'' including personnel costs and qualifications within management. 

Gov. Bruce Rauner has spent much of his first few months in office talking about labor unions. He’s shared not only policy proposals, but also his ideas about the history of the union movement. Illinois Public Media's Brian Mackey wrote about the state of labor in the April edition of Illinois Issues magazine and decided to take a closer look at one the governor’s theories.

Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration says it has agreed to allow government agencies to reinstate mandatory fair share fees for non-union members in return for union agreement to a faster timeline for resolving their dispute over the payments.

Illinois' Democratic attorney general has delivered a blow to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's efforts to weaken labor unions.