By midnight Thursday, we should know whether we have succeeded in beating back another illegal and unfair attack on the pensions of Illinois public employees.

This is your fight and the participation of all 132,000 IEA members is needed if we are to stop Senate Bill 512, the illegal and unfair pension legislation.

• It is unconstitutional to reduce benefits for active employees.
• For most education employees, their pension is their only form of retirement security because teachers can’t collect full Social Security, even if they have earned it from other work.
• Teachers have loyally paid their share portion into the state’s pension systems; The pension problem is a result of politicians using the systems as a credit card to pay for other state services.

All IEA members are urged to contact their legislators this week:

1. Call 888/412-6570 and follow the prompts to be connected to your legislator and use the above talking points, or
2. Go to the IEA website, click on the pension tab at the top of the page and you will see a link to email your legislators.

This past spring, IEA helped secure the passage of an important school reform bill that improves our schools, keeps the best teachers in classrooms, and ensures the teachers’ voice remains strong at the bargaining table.  It was the result of months of negotiations and represented a remarkable victory for IEA and our members across the state. Go to the IEA website to read more about Senate Bill 7 and watch the video below highlighting the landmark legislation.