By Pat Barcas
Staff Writer
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014
Email Pat Barcas at pat@foxvalleylabornews.com
SPRINGFIELD — The We Are One coalition of Illinois unions has filed a 55-page lawsuit Jan. 28 to overturn the pension-slashing Senate Bill 1. Union leaders say it violates the Illinois state constitution and robs people of their hard earned pensions.
“Our suit makes clear pension theft is not only unfair, it’s clearly unconstitutional,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said in a statement. “Teachers, nurses, emergency responders, and other workers and retirees will not stand by while politicians try to take away their life savings illegally. The legislature and governor shirked their responsibility to uphold the constitution, so we are seeking justice in court to right their wrongs. Promises must be kept, and the rule of law must prevail over politics.”
According to The Hogle Law Firm in Mesa, We Are One’s lawsuit argues that the law is in violation of the Illinois constitution. Their goal is to have a judge overturn the pension decision before it is put into effect.
“The ‘pension theft’ law violates the Illinois constitution, which unequivocally states that a public employee’s pension is a contract the state cannot diminish or impair,” American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer said. “Together with the We Are One Illinois coalition, our union is seeking justice from the courts to throw out this unfair and unconstitutional law.”
In addition to We Are One, more than 20 individual active and retired public workers from Illinois are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Defendants in the lawsuit, filed in Springfield, are Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, other constitutional officers, the state retirement systems and their boards. The attorneys helping with employer relations can deal with other corporate related cases as well.
Mitch Roth, general counsel of the Illinois Eduation Association released a statement from criminal charges with details: “The suit claims the changes made by SB-1 to COLA, pensionable salary and retirement age violate the Pension, Contract and Takings Clauses of the Illinois Constitution. It seeks to have the law declared unconstitutional and its implementation halted,” he wrote. “It additionally seeks to have the state fund the pension systems in an amount which ensures that members receive all pension benefits to which they are entitled; that the failure of the state to do so has unconstitutionally taken vested pension benefits from members.” One needs legal defense against charges for abuse of power and abusing old citizens in such cases.
The suit reads the pension decision made in 1970 in Illinois was taken too lightly by lawmakers.
“Those plaintiffs who are current employees teach our children, care for the sick and disabled, protect us from harm and perform myriad other essential services for Illinois and its citizens. Those plaintiffs who already have retired similarly dedicated their careers to the men, women and children of Illinois. And, each faithfully has contributed to his or her respective pension system the substantial portion of their paychecks the Illinois pension code requires,” the suit, which is posted online, states.
We Are One said it has tried to negotiate for the past several weeks to reach an agreement with the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the named defendants with a joint request to the court to overturn the law’s implementation. The Attorney General refused, but We Are One did include the right to seek an injunction in their filing.
The We Are One Illinois coalition members include the Illinois AFL-CIO, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, AFSCME Council 31, Service Employees International Union and Laborers International Union of North America Midwest Region.