May 22, 2013

April 16, 2013

CALL NOW! Stop pension-cutting HB 3411

IEA Government Relations

Immediate action is needed to protect your pension and the pensions of other IEA members.

A pension-cutting bill, HB 3411 (known as the Nekritz-Cross bill) is expected to be called for a vote this week in the Illinois House Of Representatives.

Protect your pension:

1. go to http://www.ieanea.org/legislative/contact-your-legislators/

2. fill in the blanks… send!

  OR call 888-412-6570!!!

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March 14, 2013

Call to Action!!!

Contact your Legislators and tell them that you want them

to SUPPORT –  pension bills SB 2404, HB 3162!!
Once again, the legislature is considering pension-cutting proposals opposed by IEA and the other members of the We Are One Illinois coalition. But, we’re hopeful that pension bills supported by organized labor also will see action.

In the House, it’s expected that proposals cutting pension benefits and increasing contributions could also be called, for the third week in a row.
IEA and the coalition oppose these bills as well.

IEA and the coalition support SB 2404 and HB 3162 and IEA members are urged to call the coalition hotline 888/412-6570 and tell legislators to support Senate Bill 2404 and HB 3162 and tell them to oppose all other pension legislation.     

SB 2404 and HB 3162 are the only bills supported by the labor coalition!!!

The State Senate could vote Thursday on Senate Bill 1 and/or Senate Bill 35. These measures call for pension reductions for retirees, and for active employees to work longer and pay more for their pensions. The bills passed out of the Senate Executive Committee Wednesday.

IEA and the coalition oppose those bills in the SENATE!!!

1. go to http://www.ieanea.org/legislative/contact-your-legislators/

2. fill in the blanks… send!

  OR call 888-412-6570!!!

IT’S YOUR MONEY THEY WILL BE

TAKING AWAY!!! 

TELL THEM NOT THIS TIME !!

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February 27, 2013

To: ALL SEA MEMBERS
Subject: Call to action

Colleagues:
The call to action below has been posted to the IEA website and sent to the IEA Facebook and Twitter pages

Pensions are under attack – Call NOW!
On Tuesday, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan announced there will be a “weekly order of business” session of the Illinois House this week, focused on pensions.
This means there will be floor debate on legislative amendments that, if passed into law, would reduce pension benefits for participants in TRS, SURS and the other state pension systems.
The floor debate and voting, which are expected to begin on Thursday, will focus on areas of great concern to IEA members in the affected pension systems;

* The annual cost of living adjustment (COLA)
* The retirement age for active members of the state pension systems
* Employee contributions to the retirement systems, as well other pension-impacting proposals offered by members of the House.

This is a serious attack on your pension– Call NOW!
IEA members are urged to contact their state representatives immediately to stop these pension-cutting proposals from getting out of the House.
Tell your representative that the only proposals they should support are those calling for guaranteed funding of the state pension systems and for a dedicated source of revenue for pensions, such as pension obligation bonds.
Also, be sure to tell your representative that the employee contributions must not be increased more than two percentage points.
Make the call NOW! Call 888-412-6570 to be connected to your state representative. Print out this information so you can refer to it when you get your representative on the phone,
Floor debate is expected to begin Thursday.

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January 8th, 2013

House Quits Lame Duck—No Pension Bill Passed

Fellow Board members and Political Activists,

Thanks in large part to continuous hard work by our leaders, staff–including our GR lobbyists–and thousands of calls and e-mails and visits by members of the We Are One coalition–including IEA,
we dodged several very bad bills in the closing hours of the lame duck session.

Today the Pension Committee’s Nekritz-Biss HB 1673 did not get enough support to be voted on in the House.

The Pension Committee late this afternoon took up a proposal from Governor Quinn to establish a Commission to develop a solution that would have to be voted down by the General Assembly or else it would go into effect.
That proposal also died for lack of support. Some legislators felt the Governor’s idea was illegal.

At just before 5pm Speaker Madigan adjourned the House. The Senate may still be in session for a while today, but there are no pending pension issues for them to act on.

Tomorrow the new legislature will be sworn in and apparently Speaker Madigan will have some statements on pensions then.

Congratulations to Cinda, Kathi, Al, Audrey, Jim Reed, the lobbyists, our union brothers and sisters, and all of us!

Now it starts all over again.

Region 35 Pension Rally Jan4, 2013-see your members in action

Jan 6th 2013

URGENT !

Region 35 Pension Rally…see your SEA members in action!

January 4, 2013 – Springfield IL

Pension Preservation – Contact your Legislator

• Go to

• http://ieanea.org/legislative/contact-your-legislators or call 888-412-6570

• click on “elected officials”

• say or type the following

• “ I am calling/writing to you as a member of the Illinois Education Association, a resident of your district and as a voter. I’m urging you to vote against any pension bill that has not been negotiated with the labor unions. I also urge you to oppose any bill that does not include guaranteed funding”