Fighting for my pension with a pole in my head.

Pole in my head on the way to Brooklyn with Anne at the South Bend travel plaza. on I-80.

Anne and I are headed for Brooklyn. We are having Thanksgiving with some of our family. We want no part of airports, so we are driving with a stop in Cleveland. A lovely Holiday Inn near the airport with a priceline.com discount.

We will be back on Sunday in time for Monday’s Pension Emergency Day called by the We Are One coalition of state public employee unions. 

This includes both the IEA and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the IFT.

A week ago we were notified by both the IEA leadership in Springfield and We Are One that there would be actions at selected legislators.

Great! For those of us in S.O.R.E, that is our style. We are self-described hell-raisers.

No need to plan an action on our own. We would join with our brothers and sisters at the targeted offices. Just tell us which ones.

We heard nothing.

And when I asked, it was suggested on Friday that there would be nothing in the Chicago north area. With many school districts out for Thanksgiving week and many of our retired members heading somewhere to be with family, we decided to take action into our own hands. We have an appointment with Representative Laura Fine at her district office in Glenview on Monday morning.

Then today came word from the North Suburban Teachers Union local 1274 of the IFT. There WOULD be actions at local legislators’ district offices in the Chicago north area.

On Monday, December 2nd, the IFT and our partners in the We-Are-One labor coalition will be holding rallies at legislative offices across the state to show our opposition to the pension theft legislation being proposed by the leaders of the General Assembly. Those leaders have called their members for a special session on December 3rd to present legislation that would dramatically reduce the pension benefit for all public workers – active and retired. They will be putting tremendous pressure on their members to vote for this pension theft bill. We need to counter that pressure with our own show of force in opposition to the proposed bill.

Our local is organizing rallies at the offices of four area legislators:

Senator Daniel Biss, 3706 Dempster St., Skokie.
Senator Ira Silverstein, 2951 W. Devon Ave., Chicago
Representative Laura Fine, 1812 Waukegan Rd., Glenview
Representative Robyn Gabel, 820 Davis St., Evanston

The rallies will be held after school, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM on Monday, December 2nd.

Please click here to sign up for the location that you would like to attend.

There will be a local leader assigned to each of those sites to act as a spokesperson and to organize the groups. They will have signs for you to carry. Your main role will be to participate in a show of force.

Friends and family are encouraged to attend – please feel free to forward this email to any potential supporter.

We will need a strong showing at these rallies to fight the most serious threat to our pensions to date.

Sign up here to attend a pension-saving rally on Monday, December 2nd!

Are IEA and IFT in the same coalition? Okay. So inter-We Are One communications are a little disorganized. No big deal. It’s a good thing those of us at street level talk to one another.

I knew I was right a dozen or so years ago when I voted (but lost) to merge the two unions. Not that it would guarantee any tighter organization.

Anyway. Pick one. Go there.

To be clear. You can do morning with Fine if you are a SORE MEMBER ONLY the after-school IFT rallies. Or both.

Although some days it feels like I have a pole in my head.