Photo: Sarah Ji
When retired teacher and IEA member Sig Lisowski emailed IEA President Cinda Klickna and asked her why the IEA was MIA at the huge Labor Day rally in support of Chicago teachers, she responded:
Thank you for your email.
I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. I’m currently out of state at the Democratic Convention, but I understand thousands of IEA members participated in Labor Day events all over the state in the last few days, making a presence in their local communities.
I’m glad participation was high for the Chicago event and I hope you were able to attend, as I’m sure many IEA members did. In fact IEA Secretary-Treasurer Al Llorens was there.
IEA supports the CTU, passed a resolution of support at the NEA RA and I have sent good wishes to the CTU president.
Thank you for writing.
Cinda
Well. If you were interested in the level of IEA participation, you must be thrilled to know that Al Llorens was there.
Where was Cinda? She was in Charlotte for the Democrat’s infomercial. Even Rahm figured he needed to get back to Chicago and not stay the entire time at the DNC.
Not Cinda.
But whether it was Al or Cinda isn’t the point. The IEA didn’t even mention the rally on their website. No emails. None of their now-famous robo-calls.
This reminded me of their mobilization for the August 17th General Assembly where our pensions were once again on the line.
Or rather their non-mobilization. If any member went to Springfield that day, they did it like a group of us did. On our own.
The result was like yesterday. Sure. IEA members were at the Daley Plaza. But they were there on their own with no encouragement, information or organization from IEA.
In the old days stodgy, bureaucratic leadership could get away with stuff like this. But thanks to the CTU, their President Karen Lewis and their team of young activists and seasoned leaders, all union members can see what is possible.
And no longer tolerable.
Maybe that’s why they didn’t want anyone to know about it.
Fred Klonsky 
As a long time CTU member I have often wondered why we pay dues to the IFT and AFT-where were they yesterday?
MIA when Facebook and the internet are flooded with support messages from teachers’ organizations from all over the United States and Canada – UNACCEPTABLE, SELF-DEFEATING & SHAMEFUL.
There are no excuses for MIA when the fight they are fighting is one and the same with the CTU.
IEA is fighting with 1950’s mentality and tactics. The Commercial Club of Chicago and their paid politicians are fighting with 2012 weaponry and tactics. Pathetic & stupid.
Since my livelihood, and that of thousands more of us, is on the line, I take the IEA’s behavior personally. As a matter of fact, the threat to our livelihoods and healthcare is as personal as it gets.
Hello Fred,
I’m writing so that your readers can be the first to know that my son, Chris Ludkowski, has decided to mount a write-in campaign for the office of State Representative of the 57th District.As many of your readers know, that office is currently held by Elaine Nekritz, sponsor of the bill to shift the cost of teacher pensions to local school districts. Ms. Nekritz is not a friend of teachers or public employees.
Let me tell you about Chris. He attended elementary and junior high school in East Maine School District 63, and he graduated from Maine East High School in 2004. He attended Illinois State University received his B.S. degree with a double major in History and Political Science. He went on to earn an M.B.A. from ISU in 2010.
Chris is currently employed as a solutions specialist with an industrial chemical company. He helps private companies and government entities reduce operating costs in his current position. My doesn’t like career politicians, but he is tired of the ” B.S.” and believes that the citizens of District 57 require fresh leadership to represent their interests in Springfield.
What will he work to accomplish?
1. Taxes should be increased for the highest earners. He realizes that any tax increase is going to be unpopular. However, there is no reasonable alternative to fix the problems that current and past senators and representatives have created. The burden of balancing the Illinois budget should be placed on those who can most afford it.
2. Capital gains should be taxed as income, not investment income.
3. Regulations should be increased on speculative-style trading.
4. Taxes should be increased for large corporations to pay for public services and commitments. ( i.e. pensions, roads, schools, police, fire, etc.) Public workers should not have to accept pension cuts because of government irresponsibility.
5. Penalize corporations that send jobs out of the country.
6. Reward corporations that create jobs for people in the United States.
7. He is pro- single payer universal health care.
8. He would work to increase funding to community colleges.
9. Labor Unions should be expanded.
What are his personal qualifications?
* He has no DUIs, arrests, convictions, or indictments.
* He hasn’t lied about his service record. (He is not a veteran.)
* He has had no extra-marital affairs.
* He has knowledge of foreign policy and business experience.
I hope all of you will spread the word and support my son even if you don’t live in District 57.
Thank you!
Lill Ludkowski
Oy… I’m just going to chime in and say that it doesn’t surprise me that the current governance of the IEA was asleep at the wheel here; they honestly don’t seem very adept at these things. Or really, at anything. However, it should not have gotten past the attention of the chief employee. I frankly don’t know how you can be working full-time in educational labor and not call Karen Lewis to coordinate something on Labor Day, with a strike looming, unless you’re on the other side.
They found their phone the day AFTER Labor Day to offer support according to their website.
This really disturbs me.
This comes as no surprise. Anyone who knows Cinda knows she will pick a week of having her ring kissed and plenty of good food/drink over a week of “dirty work.” That’s what staff is for!
Talk about great timing, eh? Day after the rally. Kind of like seeing Ms. Klinka in Springfield after downplaying the pension rally.
Cinda Klickna is Ken Swanson dressed in drag. If you’re an informed teacher you’ll agree that both Klickna and Swanson are both administrative hacks. The IEA is a total embarrassment to Illinois teachers (real teachers and not some IEA groupie). I wish the IEA and NEA would stop trying to sell me insurance, vacation packages, and using my union dues to support political ideologies that I don’t support. The IEA are a bunch of “Animal Farm” pigs that only have an interest in stripping you of your union dues (how was the democratic convention Cinda) and selling you down the river. The IEA’s response to any crisis is to call your congressman. Don’t we elect IEA officers to draw up an appropriate battle plan to implement? Must be nice Queen Cinda to sit on your ass and drink tea and eat crumpets while the rest of us worry about our future. Real Illinois teachers should start a grassroots association and dump the bureaucratic ineffective IEA. You know; for the teachers by the teachers’ type of thing.