IEA disenfranchises its retired members.

2014 election results, retired delegate to the 2015 IEA Representative Assembly:

2015 election results, retired delegate to the 2016 IEA Representative Assembly:

Yes, the names are the same. But check out the turnout.

IEA Retired claims to have over 12,000 members. This year’s election results are down 60% from last year.

Last year 40 retirees ran for 20 delegate slots.

This year 25 retirees ran for 21 delegate slots.

Some members reported to me that they never received notice of deadlines for nomination forms to be submitted.

Former IEA President Bob Haisman received the most votes. He received 6% of eligible voters.

And that is after Haisman sent out notices in which he personally offered to “help anyone vote.”

That brought back memories of my old Democratic precinct captain. He used to pay five bucks for local guys who were just hangin’ out to vote.

Even Haisman’s offer didn’t work.

Low turnout did what it supposed to do. Keep the insiders inside and the connected connected.

I supported Bob Kaplan, Mae Smith and Pearl Mack. I’m happy they were elected.

When I tried to vote I had to make numerous phone calls and send numerous emails until a month into the voting. I finally received instructions on how to cast an online vote. One more week and I would have missed the deadline. A week before the deadline I also received a paper ballot.

The entire process was a mess.

At the time I doubted whether many retired members would pursue it as persistently. I doubt most knew even how to pursue it.

I turned out to be prescient. Even I didn’t predict that only 700 out of 12,000 would figure out how to cast a ballot.

Early on I was told the online election was a “work in progress.”

How can an election that is supposed to follow labor election law, and with results that are final, be a “work in progress?”

You know, of course, that the president of the IEA can be elected with fewer votes than voted for the top vote getter in this delegate election?

Whether by intention or incompetence this election was bogus.

The reason you see the same names on the ballot year after year is exactly this. Members have less and less confidence in how things work in the IEA.

The IEA Retired election for RA delegate: A mess.

From the voting procedure video on the IEA website.

I’ve been posting about the IEA election for Retired delegate to the state convention.

Understand that active teacher, ESP and other delegates from locals are elected by their locals in their buildings and the elections are run by the local.

Only student members and Retired members have state-wide elections. In the past the voting has been done by mail-in ballots. The participation is low. Less than 20% of retired members vote.

IEA Retired does not control how the election is run. It is entirely handled by staff with the ultimate responsibility belonging to Executive Director Audrey Soglin.

Since becoming a retired member I (and others) have asked why the voting can’t be done online with the hope that online voting would increase participation.

I was told that online voting violated federal labor law.

Apparently that is not true. This year the election is being held online (and by mail-in ballot if one is requested). No law has been changed.

1. Members have told me that they received nomination forms in the mail on the day of and after the nominating deadline.
2. Only 25 members are running for 21 delegate slots. Last year there were 39 members running for fewer slots. That is a huge drop in the number of candidates.
3. We have been told that this is a “pilot” election to assess online voting. Leadership says that I mischaracterize this. “The process is being piloted, not the election,” IEA VP Kathi Griffin told me. I need an explanation about the difference between an election and a process. 
4. How can an actual election be a pilot? Delegates will be elected who will vote on IEA budget, officers and program. If the process is compromised, so are the results.
5. If there was advance notification that this would be an online election, it still caught many members unaware and by surprise.
6. For me to finally cast a vote I had to email IEA half a dozen times. Calls to the private company that is running the election were answered by voice mail with a promise my call would be returned.   I received no return calls after I left two messages. How many retirees will go through so many steps in order to vote?
7. Retired members who are not comfortable with online voting were told that they would need to submit a request for a paper ballot each year. The deadline to request paper ballots is weeks before the deadline for online voting. I had one day to request a paper ballot before finally receiving my password and pin to vote online.
8. There is no confirmation of your online vote. Once I voted, a message appears that I voted but I have no record of the vote. I received no email confirmation, for example.

Mail-in voting keeps participation low in a state-wide election. Low participation keeps insiders in and those with connections connected. Online voting should increase participation. If the evaluation of the “pilot” is that it doesn’t work well or doesn’t increase participation, IEA leadership will have an excuse to return to mail-in voting.

Beyond all that, we had former IEA President Bob Haisman, a current IEA Retired Council member and candidate in the election telling members on his Facebook page to contact him, offering to help members vote, a violation of the IEA’s own voting rules and procedures.

I finally got my IEA Retired ballot and voted today.

After a slew of emails and unanswered and non-returned phone calls from the private outfit that is running the IEA Retired delegate election, I finally got to vote today.

Good thing. Tomorrow is the last day I could have requested a paper ballot if the online thing didn’t work.

There is too much wrong here.

Only 25 people are running for 21 delegate slots when 39 ran last year.

Too many IEA Retired members never got notification of the online voting.

How many retired members will go to all the work of multiple emails and unanswered phone calls? Turnout is normally less than 20%. This won’t exactly encourage more members to vote.

And it just is a little too weird to call an election for delegates who vote on the IEA budget, vote for who will be leadership and what the direction our organization will take, and call it a “pilot.”

Like a practice election? But the results count?

And no paper trail of the vote. I took a screen snap, but it is not likely anybody else will bother.

Can this be legal?

Then today, a former IEA President, current member of the IEA Retired Council and a candidate for delegate tells people to contact him so he can help them vote.

As predictable the Anti-IEA Critics are trying to “Make Something” out of a few cliches in a new promising 21 century system …if you are having problems voting (You must be an IEA-Retired Member)….try these…”If you did not receive voting information or have not been able to make it work — Election-America at HelpRetired@election-america.com or call 866-384-9978 — IEA Membership Help — Kim Trader — 217 – 321 – 2250 or kim.trader@ieanea.org)”

None of this works? Call Haisman direct — 708 997 1993 or Email Me — haismanbob@gmail.com….I will get you in contact with people that will help you cast your VOTE! For all the Haisman-Critics–Haters out there — relax, calm yourselves — don’t get your neck-tie to tight …. I’ll help members vote even if they are not voting for me — you don’t have to tell me who you are voting for — i just want to help YOU VOTE! I want Voter turnout to be HIGH! – Bob Haisman

I don’t know about “cliches,” but our local and Retired chapter always made it very clear that anybody running  for office stay far away from the actual voting and counting of votes. Nobody helps people vote that is in leadership or is running.

Well, except for a Chicago ward heeler.

And former IEA Presidents.

 

Can there be such a thing as a “pilot” union election?

I was speaking at last summer’s NEA Representative Assembly.

I’m trying to vote in the Illinois Education Association’s Retired election, It’s for delegates to the IEA Representative election. The state meeting is taking place in the Spring.

For only the second time since I became active in the union, I won’t be running. I explained my reasons here.

But I’m still a member. And I want to vote. And while voting has already started and ends the first week in December, I haven’t been able to cast a ballot.

In the past, IEA Retired voting has been done by mail. I suspect this keeps the number of voters down. Around 2,000 members vote in an organization that claims 12,000 members. As in any election, low turnout keeps the insiders in and the connected connected.

I’m not saying there is a conspiracy. But you don’t have to be paranoid to know that somebody may be chasing you.

For years we asked why the voting can’t be done online. We were told by IEA general counsel Mitch Roth that it would violate labor law. The law didn’t change, yet we are voting online this year.

To vote, I was told I would receive voting information in the mail. Nothing has come.

I have heard the same about these voting problems from other members.

I wrote the IEA and they told me to call the number of the company contracted to run the online election. I did. A recorded message told me to leave a message. I did. Twice. Nobody has returned my call.

I have now requested a paper ballot hoping I will get it and send it back in time.

Will other retirees be so determined to vote? I have some doubts.

Emails from various IEA leaders and staff have told me this a pilot election and a work in progress.

Can that be legal? Can you have a pilot election that actually results in people winning and losing?

Maybe some people want the online voting to fail so that they can go back to snail mail.

It keeps the insiders in and the connected connected.

Teacher retirees care about more than pensions.

Members of our IEA Retired chapter, the Skokie Organization of Retired Educators, have a policy that when union teachers are on strike, IEA or IFT, we plan a field trip to do strike support.

But where is the rest of the IEA and IEA Retired?

Members of the Prospect Heights Education Association have been on strike for three days so far.

If you are a retired or active member of the IEA and you rely on the IEA web site for union news, than as of noon today, Friday, you don’t know that.

When our Park Ridge Education Association local was on strike in 2003 it was the same story. We were on strike for a week with little mention of it on the IEA site. So, not much has changed.

There are probably 1,000 retired members of IEA Retired in the area covered by the Palatine and Skokie Regional offices.

Many of us are available and ready for strike support. That’s what we did today because we read about the strike in the newspapers.

The failure of the IEA and its retired leadership to notify, let alone organize strike support among retirees, is insulting.

It feeds the lie that all we care about is our pensions and health care. We received tons of email notifications about pension payments over the past couple of weeks.

It’s a missed opportunity and shame. We are not simply “pension warriors.” As union members we believe “an injury to one is an injury to all.”

There is not much evidence that is a philosophy shared by our leaders.

Keeping retirement weird.

Supporters of democracy and of Susan Sadlowski Garza will be gathering at the offices of 10th ward Alderman John Pope this afternoon at 2PM.

They are gathering at 106th and Avenue M in Chicago’s East Side neighborhood.

This is all part of trying to stop the Machine from stealing the 10th ward vote. If you have been following the reporting here you know that Pope’s goons have been playing fast and loose with absentee ballots. It’s an old Chicago game.

Absentee ballots will continue to be counted until the vote is made official on April 21st. Sue is up by 43 votes. We are watching to make sure every vote is legal and that they don’t pull a Deb Mell by suddenly discovering a box of uncounted votes in a closet somewhere.

Chicago shenanigans.

I was told by a reader that they called a reporter at the Sun-Times about what was going on in the 10th ward and he dismissed it as rumor. He chided the caller for believing what she reads on blogs such as this.

I have an idea. Don’t believe me. Get away from your desk and stop reporting-by-Google and drive down to the 10th ward and find out for yourself.

Another old Chicago game is fixing blame when you lose.

The Cubs have been blaming a goat for their failure for years.

Politics is a different matter and Chicago being Chicago the issue of race will inevitably find its way into things. Although an honest discussion of racism rarely will.

That’s not good.

It is still early to look deeply into all the demographics of the vote. 

We know that over 500,000 voters went to the polls and that most of the million and a half registered voters didn’t.

I have seen some numbers that suggest younger voters (and for me that means under 40) went for Garcia, but most of that demographic stayed home in greater numbers than older voters.

Older voters went for Rahm and they voted in larger numbers than the younger voters did.

I haven’t seen the exact totals on this, but we can assume.

Older voters are my folks.  I take some responsibility for that.

Rahm’s cutting of public employee pension benefits should not have been a winning formula for winning my people. I know we are not all the same. Some older voters still live off of family money handed down from trust funds. Some older voters are retired, but are retired from Wall Street or La Salle Street. A few are part of the one percent, I am ashamed to say.

We come in all races and classes.

For the rest of us, how has Rahm been good for us?

So I have my work cut out for me.

As I say, these are my people.

Today I will be at the state conference of the Illinois Education Association Retired.

Next week is the state convention in Rosemont known as the Representative Assembly.

I am an elected retired delegate. One of twenty retirees at a meeting of 1,000 delegates.

A little voice, but we will try and be heard.

And current IEA Retired members should be mailing in their their ballots to Springfield for the retired delegate election for the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly which will be held in Orlando next July.

I am number 20 on the ballot.

As I say, we have work to do.

Jim Keating: We’re all in this together. Don’t read about history. Make it.

By Jim Keating. Jim is a retired teacher from the western Chicago suburbs.

There is an old WWI Navy poster that reads, “The Navy needs you! Don’t read about American history – make it!”  That was good advice 100 years ago and is still good advice today. We retired educators may be too old to join the Navy, but we are not too old to join  the IEA-R and the IRTA. The state General Assembly has declared war on our pension benefits. Sign up and join in the fight to preserve what we have earned and start making Illinois history. Both organizations need you and you need them. Join today.

For IEA-R membership, go to,  http://www.ieanea.org,  click “our members”, click “retired”

For IRTA  membership, go to,   http://www.irtaonline.org,  click  “join IRTA”

If you are already members of at least one of these associations, become a recruiter for your local chapter or unit. Do your part and show your fellow TRS members how valuable the IEA-R and the IRTA are to you. When you get your local’s newsletter via email, send it on to your friends with a little note telling them how you have benefited from being a member. Then ask them to join your chapter or unit. Spread the word that by joining the association they will be kept informed and educated about how the pension issues of today will effect their financial lives as they move forward in  retirement.

Now if I may just  speak about the IRTA for a moment. The leadership of the IRTA  is committed to a vigorous and robust defense of our pensions, and they want as many retirees as possible to have their backs. They would like to increase their membership to 40,000 plus by the end of the year. So ask your friends to do their bit. Ask them to join the IRTA and welcome them to the fight for our financial justice.

There really is strength (and political power) in numbers, and we need that now. Large memberships in both the IEA-R  and the IRTA will show the state’s General Assembly that we are a strong and determined community of retired educators. Our state organizations  will fight the good fight to keep what we have earned no matter what the GA tries do. Join the fight. Join both organizations. We are all in this together and together we will win this war on  our pension benefits and make Illinois history.

Elected retired delegates are on a watch list at the IEA RA.

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I usually don’t pay much attention to the recent rantings of the former IEA President, Bob Haisman.

It was only a few years ago that he loved me. We were comrades-in-arms.

If there were legislators who waffled on pension theft, Haisman was on their case.

He swore that if they stole his pension they would not get his vote and he urged all of us to follow his lead.

And I did.

Strangely, after following his call to arms, he turned on me.

For doing exactly what he said we should do.

He wrote scathing emails and comments to this blog claiming I was anti-union.

Me?

Can anyone read this blog and think that I am anti-union?

He sent me so many tirades, that I finally cut him off.

Last week the results of the state-wide election for IEA RA Retired delegates were announced and the former IEA President Bob Haisman came in first. As he always does.

Congratulations, Bob.

But a number of us who ran as a slate on a platform of what we considered reforms were also elected.

One of our folks came in second to the former IEA President and two of us did pretty well.

Clearly we represent the views of many loyal IEA/NEA Retired members.

In announcing his win, the former IEA President promised to keep an eye on us at the Representative Assembly.

“I will watch out for those attacks on our Union from inside our organization as well as outside!” he promised his followers on Facebook.

I can only assume that the inside folks he will be watching are us.

Here is the platform we ran on:

We are running as candidates to represent the IEA Retired at the 2015 IEA Representative Assembly. We share the following beliefs. (This is not a criticism of others who are running as delegates. We strongly believe in a diversity of views).

1. We believe the IEA leadership needs to improve communication with its membership.
2. We believe the IEA leadership should be more transparent in its decision-making process.
3. We believe retirees should have a stronger voice (more representation) in the decision-making process of the Association.
4. We believe our Association should take a more significant and active role in defending our schools, our members, and our students from corporate school reform schemes such as charter schools, vouchers, Common Core, Race to the Top and teacher evaluations based on student test scores.
5. We believe in defending our contractual and constitutional pension benefits and rights without apologies, concessions or compromise.

– Jack Tucker, Mary Richie, Glen Brown, John Dillon and Fred Klonsky

Does this sound anti-union to you?

Does it sound like an attack on our union?

Bob has a hard time distinguishing between differences and disloyalty.

I’m old enough to remember the McCarthy era when those critical of official government policy were considered disloyal and put on black-lists.

And the sixties when civil rights activists and anti-war activiists were put on the FBI’s watch lists.

When Nixon had his enemies list.

And people were watched.

But here is my message to IEA Retired members, particularly those who voted for us as delegates. You watch. If we don’t follow through on what we stood for and for what we ran on, you can give us hell.

Important information for IEA Retired members.

From IEA Retired Chair Janet Kilgus regarding current mail-in elections and delegate election procedures to the IEA RA.

The (current) IEA RA Retired Delegate election has the following timelines:

·        Nominations form and information are in the September 2014 Advocate

·        Nominations were due to IEA by October 3, 2014.

·        Online forms were available at www.ieanea.org/about/elections or the paper form in the Advocate can be US mailed in to IEA.

·        Sample ballots and bios were to be sent to nominees October 10.

·        Corrections/changes were due to IEA by October 17.

·        Paper ballots (were) be mailed to IEA-Retired members by October 31.  They will be bulk mailed for a  large cost savings, so please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery.  THEY HAVE NOW STARTED TO ARRIVE IN THE MAIL.  You must have been a paid-up IEA/NEA-Retired and chapter member at the time of the printing of the envelopes for this mailing to participate in this election.

·        If you are a paid-up member and have not received your ballot in the mail by November 19, 2014, click on the link above to request a replacement ballot.

·        Ballots are due back to IEA by December 10, 2014.

·        Ballots will be counted December 12 and all will be notified the following week.

Chapters may share a recommended list of candidates, but please make sure to follow federal union election procedures and not use IEA Region office paper and equipment for printing, don’t discuss during the actual business meeting but rather before or after adjournment.  Please honor and allow room for individual choices.

Thank you,

Janet Kilgus

IEA-Retired Chair

There are many good folks running for delegate.

Five of us are running on a common platform.

In addition to me our group includes John Dillon, Glen Brown, Mary Richie and Jack Tucker.

Our platform:

1. We believe the IEA leadership needs to improve communication with its membership.
2. We believe the IEA leadership should be more transparent in its decision-making process.
3. We believe retirees should have a stronger voice (more representation) in the decision-making process of the Association.
4. We believe our Association should take a more significant and active role in defending our schools, our members, and our students from corporate school reform schemes such as charter schools, vouchers, Common Core, Race to the Top and teacher evaluations based on student test scores.
5. We believe in defending our contractual and constitutional pension benefits and rights without apologies, concessions or compromise.