Stephanie Gadlin Chicago Teachers Union -- 312/329-6250
January 29, 2014
January 29, 2014
CHICAGO -
In today’s State of the State address, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn made
multiple references to “getting the job done” and also claimed to have
ended the
culture of instability that existed in Illinois government. He
highlighted the strides that the state has made in working with women
and minority-owned businesses. The problem is that his claims about the
benefits of education reform and championing an agreement
on comprehensive pension reform don’t meet any of these tests.
Education
reform as done in Illinois promotes instability and privatization,
disproportionately and negatively impacts women and people of color, and
makes it difficult for parents and educators to “get the
job done.” The pension reform the governor cited as the “tallest task
of all” is currently being challenged in Illinois Circuit Court by the
We Are One Illinois coalition of labor unions for violating the pension
clause of the Illinois Constitution, which
states that a public pension is a contract that the State of Illinois
cannot diminish or impair.
We
stand in support with the teacher and service unions throughout the
state who filed suit yesterday, as well as the more than 20 individual
retirees named as plaintiffs. As we prepare to aggressively defend
our own public pensions here in Chicago, we stand up for some of the
most important people in our community—those who have already served,
paid a great debt to the people of our city and state and have paid into
their pension systems only to be told they won’t
get the money they deserve.
“There
are many ways to solve the state’s economic problems, but these
legislators insist on doing it on the backs of its workers by ignoring
the pension heist and not taking into consideration the consequences
to our communities,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “They’re
destroying the morale of the people who are actually doing the work and
threating the security of those who have already served. We call on the
governor to end this pension heist.”
Teachers,
paraprofessionals and school clinicians will join other municipal
workers in a mass pension rally in Springfield on February 19. For more
information visit
www.ctunet.com.
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We are one, but we are many!!! We shall all fight the pension cuts both Chicago and downstate!
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