Council 31 Legislative Update

Tax Increase in Jeopardy – The state’s leading source for breaking news at the State Capitol is reporting today that a growing number of legislators are resisting any form of income tax increase—and are prepared to make draconian cuts to the state budget. There’s a $12 billion budget hole—and even they can find ways to paper over a few billion of that, without a tax increase, there will undoubtedly be major service cuts, massive layoffs of state employees, and hard hits on university budgets and funding for community disability agencies.
Council 31 has launched the "Consider the Consequences " campaign—which will combine intensive grassroots lobbying with a saturation media outreach in the Springfield area where legislators will remain for the rest of the session. Currently they are scheduled to enact a budget and adjourn by May 31st.

Action Needed: AFSCME members should be calling, writing and emailing their legislators to tell them to support the income tax increase and other revenue-raising measures needed to close the state’s budget gap.

Two-Tier Pensions Pushed – This week SB 1292, the Governor’s proposed two-tier pension plan, which would eliminate the alternative formula for new public safety employees, as well as reducing benefits for all other new hires in state government and state universities, was up for a hearing in the House Committee on Pensions. Council 31 Executive Director, Henry Bayer-- along with leaders of the IFT, the IEA and the Illinois Federation of Labor--was there to testify against the measure. The union leaders made a powerful case against the folly of the bill which would continue to drastically underfund the pension system at the same time that it drastically cuts benefit.
After the hearing, the House leadership convened a meeting in which key legislators insisted that they were determined to enact legislation that would reduce pension benefits for new hires—and argued that the unions should work with them to craft an "acceptable" bill. Henry and the other labor leaders present made clear that benefit cuts are not acceptable--and that labor would oppose any bill that cuts pension benefits for new hires.

Action Needed: Make sure your legislators know you oppose two-tier pensions. Legislators argue they’re not hurting union members—only those not yet in our ranks. But those folks will be our members the day they’re hired—and they will be very unhappy members when they realize they have a much lower pension than the employees working alongside them.

AFSCME Working to Amend "Fumigation" Bill – HB 4450, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s legislation to immediately terminate all "political" hires and appointees from the Ryan and Blagojevich administrations, would hit thousands of dedicated, hard-working employees who are anything but political hacks. AFSCME lobbyists are working nonstop to amend the legislation to exclude anyone in an AFSCME bargaining unit—or any employee included in a petition for union representation currently before the labor board. At the same time, it is the union’s position that the ‘just cause’ clause of the AFSCME master agreement would prohibit the termination of any AFSCME member even if the bill should pass as is.

Action Needed: AFSCME local unions in state government should make sure that any of their members potentially impacted by this bill—or newly-organized employees in their jurisdiction—know that the union is working to amend this legislation to exclude them from its provisions. And remind members that it is the union’s position that the AFSCME contract would prevent their termination even if the bill passes as is.