“Hey, hey, ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel’s got to go!”
One of the things I am most proud of as a blogger was how a bunch of us dragged that little weasel, Jonah Edelman and his Stand for Children organization, out from the shadows a year ago.
They’re still around, of course. They are still doing their weasel work.
But Edelman came into town like a snake in the grass, handing out checks to legislators and kissing Madigan’s butt. And with the cooperation of IEA Executive Director Audrey Soglin and then-IEA President Ken Swanson, worked to get Senate Bill 7 passed through the legislature.
The little snot then went flying off to Aspen and gave a lecture on how to screw unions with the cooperation of the union leaders themselves. The lecture was taped and with the help of a few other education bloggers and techies, we got the tape online before Aspen had a chance to scrub it from their web site.
It caused Edelman and the IEA leadership great embarrassment. Which they deserved. Edelman ended up writing an apology and sending it to this blog.
What he apologized for was his big mouth. Not for what he did to teachers.
One of the things that Edelman described in the video was how the IEA leaders threw the CTU under the wheels of a Metra train. Senate Bill 7 contained a special clause just for the CTU: Any strike authorization vote would need 75% of the members. Not just 75% of those voting. But 75% of all the members.
This was part of the anti-union agenda of Edelman and Stand for Children. Edelman wanted a no-strike clause. But he was satisfied, figuring that 75% was too high a hurdle for the CTU to jump over.
What he didn’t figure on was Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm has so angered the teachers in this city that unofficial preparatory straw polls in the city’s schools have been running 90% in favor of a strike.
In fact, Rahm is so despised by the city’s educators that the most popular chant at last week’s massive demonstration of 5,000 in the Loop was, “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel’s got to go!”
Sweet revenge.
The Chicago Public Schools board of ed took $33 million in federal funds for a merit pay program.
One of the requirements for receiving the funds was involvement by the Chicago Teachers Union.
Which CPS didn’t bother to get.
Nor would they have received it since CTU President Karen Lewis made it perfectly clear that the union was not doing merit pay.
CTU president Karen Lewis says the union told CPS from the get-go that it wouldn’t sign on to any form of merit pay. She said the district is committing “grant fraud.”
“You have not met the terms but you go ahead and you take the money. That’s fraud,” Lewis said.
Late Thursday, Lewis said she’s requesting both the CPS inspector general and the U.S. Department of Education investigate why CPS accepted the money when it did not technically qualify.
As the CTU announces plans for a strike authorization vote, the ethics of the CPS board will be something teachers will be keeping in mind.
A nightcap with Tony.
When the news came that the pension bill would not be voted on this session I headed over to the Red Line Tap.
If ever I needed a drink, it was last night.
Two Loyola college kids were over in the corner nursing a couple of beers.
And Tony was at the bar.
“Dodged a bullet?”
“Big time,” I said. “Why don’t you buy this time?”
“Nope,” said Tony. “That would ruin my reputation.”
“Of course,” I sighed.
“Speaking of reputations. What’s with that guy Madigan? He would slit his own mother’s throat if the deal was right.”
“Yep. He’s a real piece of work. But he can count votes. With all the push back around the state, he knew he couldn’t pull this off, so he bailed and handed the defeat to Quinn and Cross. Now they smell like yesterday’s shit.”
“A true son of Chicago,” said Tony. “Just one in a long line.”
I took a long sip.
“Go ahead.”
“What?”
“You know. Go ahead. Talk shit about my union. You’re not going to miss this chance. I know you.”
“I’m not sayin’ nothin’,” said Tony.
“You’re going to say that the spineless leadership started out by giving away what they promised they never would do. You’re going to say that they opened up by giving in to us paying a bigger contribution. That they showed their cards before the betting even started.”
“Okay. That’s true. I was going to say that, but then you would get all riled up like you get. And I wanted to keep a sophisticated tone to this joint.”
“Well, Tony. As Kenny Rogers would say, there’s time a enough for counting. Right now I just want to savor the victory.”
“Jeez,” Tony said as he asked Micky for another beer. “The old guy’s quoting Kenny Rogers.”
Breaking. Cross calls off pension vote.
We just got word that GOP House Leader has called off a vote on the pension bill. He is calling for a summer session.
See you in Springfield.
We have to remember.
From MIC.
We have to remember.
This fight isn’t over.
Even with six hours to go and support for SB 1673 struggling, this fight isn’t over.
Even if the bill dies outright, this fight isn’t over.
We have to remember.
We have to remember they’ll be back.
We have to remember where this bill came from and remind those who pushed it who their base is.
We have to remember the Democrats who voted this bill out of committee despite the constitutional promise it clearly broke.
We have to remind those who willingly sided with corporate interests instead of the middle class that we remember who they are.
Daniel Biss, Dan Burke, Elaine Nekriz, Karen May and Mike Madigan are all on the ballot in November.
We have to punch back and remind them that this fight isn’t over.
Because this fight isn’t over no mater what happens today.
We’re taking the punch this week.
Over the next five months its time to stand up and punch back.
Hard.
Reform Springfield.
Things fall apart. Updated.
Rule number one: If the Illinois General Assembly is still in session there is no telling the damage it can do.
Fact: The Illinois General Assembly is still in session for six more hours as I write this.
Rule number two: You never, never stop calling. 888-412-6570
Fact: The number of calls from those opposed to SB 1673 are reported to be around 100,000.
Rule number three: You can tell how things are going by whether late on the last day of the session the bars are full of lobbyists or the halls of the Capitol are full of lobbyists.
Fact: I’ve been told that at this hour the bars around the Springfield Capitol are full.
Is SB 1673 dead? Well, no. But it appears to be on life support.
Things started falling apart yesterday. When GOP House leader Tom Cross attacked Madigan for bundling the pension obligation shift with the pension benefit cuts. Madigan reacted by pulling his name off the bill and handing it over to Cross. He said he was surprised that our one-term governor supported the Republicans.
The political knives were out.
I suspected then that Madigan saw the writing on the wall and was bailing.
The Trib reported late today that the bill has hit a snag.
Is the bill dead? Don’t carve the date on the tombstone yet.
I’ve heard reports that the Chicago House delegation is voting no.
And then there was the report of Madigan’s decision to vote no.
Madigan doesn’t vote alone.
Senate President Cullerton has hinted he won’t bring it to the Senate floor even if it passes the house. It needs at least 30 Democratic Party votes to pass the House even if every Republican House member votes for it.
It’s 5:30 PM. Did we kill the bill? Don’t print the schedule for the funeral services quite yet.
But you might chill a bottle of champagne just to get ready.
Then make another call.
Am I being too optimistic?
Yes.
Besides. Even if we win this time, this is never going away for good.
Update:
More than a few friends have been told by their representatives that a special session may be called in June or later to address the pension issue again. Make sure you pay your phone bill, folks. You will be needing it.
From Roger Sanders.
CALL NOW AND DEMAND THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTE NO ON SB 1673
888-412-6570
Today there are 70,000 retired teachers and dependents enrolled in the Teacher Retirement Insurance Program that will lose benefits if this bill passes. They will have to choose between current cost of living benefits at a meager 3% or health insurance. If you choose to keep your health insurance, you must agree to give up your current COLA benefit and accept a reduced COLA of the lesser of 1/2 of the Consumer Price Index or 3%. That means your COLA will be cut in half for the rest of your life IF inflation stays low. If inflation goes higher, you will lose even more. Your COLA will be based upon the salary that was used to calculate your retirement benefit, NOT the retirement annuity you are receiving today. That means losing even more every year. You will lose tens of thousands of dollars in COLA benefits or lose health insurance. You will be forced to decide which poison to take. No one is protected or grandfathered.
If you are an active teacher, you will have to choose between your current COLA benefit and access to the state health insurance at retirement. AND if you keep your current COLA benefit, the salary used to calculate your retirement annuity will be capped.
AND it bars districts from bargaining the impact of any changes made by this law, so you have no redress at the local level to mitigate in any way the loss of benefits.
AND there is no guarantee that the state MUST meet its pension payments.
AND there is no guarantee that health insurance costs will be capped, or that health insurance will even be offered by the state. The State of Illinois could do anything with rates and the health insurance program that it wants to at any time by rewriting the state insurance act. You cannot trust the legislators in Illinois.
THIS BILL IS AN ATTACK ON EVERY RETIREE AND ACTIVE TEACHER.
NO ONE IS GRANDFATHERED. NO ONE IS PROTECTED.
THIS BILL NEGATIVELY AFFECTS ALL COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEACHERS, ACTIVE AND RETIRED. PROMISES MADE TO THEM ABOUT RETIREMENT BENEFITS AND HEALTH INSURANCE WILL BE BROKEN.
PROMISES MADE TO RETIRED TEACHERS WILL BE BROKEN.
PLEASE CALL NOW AND DEMAND THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTE NO ON SB 1673
888-412-6570
