Chris Turney’s last letter to me.

Back in the Fall when we were in the thick of the fight against the attack on pensions, Chris Turney invited me to speak to the Dupage County chapter of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association of which she was chairperson.

I received a warm reception from the 100 or so retired teachers as we discussed the history of both Senate Bill 7 and Senate Bill 512. I received a free lunch at the Greek restaurant where the monthly meeting took place. I even won a bottle of wine in the raffle. And, most importantly, I made new friends among the retired teachers who filled the room.

Last October Chris sent the following report to me on the state convention of the IRTA which she had just attended.

In the report you can see just some of what Chris stood for: activism, strong women leaders, promises made that are promises kept and unity.

Hi Fred,

Just got back from the IRTA Convention in Springfield. They had 396 delegates in attendance. They meet every other year. It is quite different from IEA, but they are the activists and are very dedicated. Many are former IEA members, former administrators, and a large group of women who belong to Delta Kappa Gamma, a strong networking educational group.

Anyway, the big issues were pension funding and pension legislation. Our pension has accrued 24 percent interest in the last eight years. Without the wise investment choices made by our trustees with our own money, we could have been in big trouble with our payments since the state has not always been timely with their payments to us (currently they owe us money). Some years have been rocky, but we have been prudent and frugal while the state has been negligent in paying us the money they owe us.

The retirees are committed to stopping SB 512 or any legislation that makes unconstitutional changes to our pensions. They are also committed to campaigning against any legislator who supports unconstitutional changes to the pension system or accepts funding from groups that work against us. There was discussion in every meeting I attended about lobbying legislators regarding our opposition to changing anything regarding our pensions for active and retired teachers. Jim Bachman, IRTA Executive Director told us we would be happy to sit at meetings and listen, but changing anything that was constitutionally guaranteed was not debatable.

When I returned to my room, I turned on the TV, and I saw the final seconds of a news segment about education funding with Cinda Klickna as the focus. It was a local segment, not anything that would be heard throughout the state. I did not hear enough to make a comment on the content of the segment.

I thought you might appreciate an update. My experience with the IRTA, as with the IEA, has been positive. The two groups would benefit from working together since they are both positive forces for retired and active teacher activists. There really is no need for competition between the two retirees group since a retiree, like me, can be a member of both.

Chris Turney

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