Leading, led or standing still? Time is running short if we’re going to stop the pension deal.

Take out your calendars. Or open it on your iPad.

Here is the schedule:

The House and Senate are to convene Tuesday through Thursday of this week, and again December 4-6. This is the veto session. But that doesn’t mean they only meet to override Quinn’s veto of passed bills.

They might legalize marijuana for medical purposes. More casino gambling. Marriage equality. Maybe pensions. Maybe not.

A 3/5ths vote (71) in the Illinois House is required to pass anything. That means Republican votes are needed along with near unanimity among Democrats.

Then after January 1st they will have the lame duck session. Or the lame dick session as I called it on Ken Davis’ Chicago Newsroom.

Bills will require only a simple majority in both houses to pass. That includes the lame ducks (or dicks) who won’t be returning. It makes legislating look more like a game of Bananagrams then a calm deliberative process.

Public employee pensions will be targeted.

Maybe.

Elaine Nekritz says not until June.

Would you bet your retirement years on what Elaine Nekritz says?

January 9th.

That’s when the new General Assembly is called into session. Jim Broadway says,

On January 9 the 98th General Assembly convenes with veto-proof Democrat majorities in both chambers. That’s when controversial legislation featuring sharp disagreement between the two parties – legislation such as the pension reform long expected – will come to a vote.

Broadway seems to be on a different calendar then Nekritz. Nekritz wants you to sleep. Broadway wants your eyes wide open. Bet on Broadway’s schedule.

The question is which calendar is IEA President Cinda Klickna using?

Blogger Glen Brown called on the IEA and others public employees to mobilize the nearly 700,000 members of the state’s public employee pensions in a mass action to demand that the law be followed, the constitution obeyed and the covenant made with the public servants of the state be honored.

Klickna says that she’s on it.

Something is being planned, she says.

Great!

What something?

Who knows about it?

Have the busses been reserved? Or is this another get there on your own, like last August.

I’m a member of IEA-Retired. Remember. I’m the one that got assigned to the non-existent Skokie chapter. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get a notice about the something we’re going to do.

Does this sound snarky?

Hey. This is November 26th. The shit potentially hits the fan starting tomorrow.

And there has been no word, mockingbird.

A reader of this blog says that if our union leadership won’t do it, we should do it ourselves.

But I say, “Hell no.” Hold our union leadership’s feet to the fire. This is the moment to see how our dues are being used. Fish or cut bait. Show and tell. Lead or get out of the way. Don’t stand in the doorway. Don’t block up the halls. It is we who gets hurt if it is she who has stalled.

Did Bob Dylan say that?

Contact cinda.klickna@ieanea.org

Tell her you’re ready to go. To fight. We can see the whites of their eyes.

A friend writes:

Fred.  The sky is a gun metal gray and the temperature is hovering at about 38 degrees.  The wind has a bit of dampness in it, and holiday shoppers are careening into one another on the streets.  Several homes still smolder after aborted deep-fried turkey schemes, and Madigan et. al. are once again nesting in the Capitol – Nekritz says possibly no deals until June 30.   Quinn says deal must be done by Jan 8.  

Yes, The Riddler has once again proved that she’s out ahead of all of us in less than a sentence.  

January is only a month away and we’ll need some organizational movement early to get this to be for real.  I wonder what CTU did to organize the rallies they held?  I wonder if Cinda is in contact with those people?  I wonder if Montgomery or Bayer or others now aware of Glen’s call to action know of Cinda’s response?

Planning?

Permits?
Buses?
Meeting points for various unions?
March times?  
Street logistics?
Marketing/communication?
Speakers?
National Exposure?
Generating urgency?
Identification of legislators to pressure?

Hey guys, the clock is ticking.