* 5:34 pm - I’ve been working on this for the past couple of hours. Nobody from either side has either been available or has wanted to talk until now. From AFSCME…
QUINN ADMINISTRATION TERMINATES UNION CONTRACT
In an unprecedented step, Governor Pat Quinn’s administration late today terminated state government’s contract with its largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31.
“In 40 years of collective bargaining, Pat Quinn is the first and only Illinois governor to terminate a union contract,” AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer said. “His actions will heighten employee frustration, provoke instability in the workplace and make settling a contract more difficult.”
AFSCME has been in negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement for nearly a year. Scheduled to expire last June 30, the previous contract’s terms had since been extended by mutual agreement of the parties. But following a bargaining session with a federal mediator in Springfield today, the Quinn administration rejected a further extension offered by the union.
Terminating the contract has little immediate practical effect, as all existing terms and conditions of employment remain in place under state law. But it signals the Quinn Administration’s lack of respect for the collective bargaining process.
“While AFSCME is committed to reaching a fair agreement, Pat Quinn seems bent on heading in the wrong direction,” AFSCME director Bayer said. “Our union wants constructive engagement but the governor is choosing confrontation instead.”
AFSCME Council 31 represents 40,000 men and women who work for the State of Illinois. AFSCME-represented state employees care for veterans and the disabled, help struggling families, protect children from abuse, maintain safe prisons and much more.
No word yet on what might happen next. Stay tuned.
* 5:47 pm - The Quinn administration’s response via Abdon M. Pallasch. Asst. Budget Director…
After 11 months of bargaining, we informed AFSCME’s leadership Tuesday that there will be no more extensions of their contract that expired in June.
Governor Quinn has cut state spending down to 2008 levels and proposed closing empty or half-empty, very expensive state facilities that are no longer needed. After decades of mismanagement, he state is behind on $8 billion dollars of payments to vendors including social service agencies. And the state’s pension shortfall has risen to $96 billion – the worst of the 50 states.
During 11 months of bargaining, the state has extended the contract three times and made significant efforts to compromise. But the government employees union, which has not offered a single proposal to deal with retirement health care, continues to seek millions of dollars in pay hikes the taxpayers can’t afford to give them. It has refused to recognize the extraordinary financial crisis squeezing the state.
* 5:53 pm - The next bargaining session is not until December 11th.
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HB 5440: Don’t Let Illinois Fall Behind
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Shifting on the cost shift
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* April 24th, 2012…
Gov. Pat Quinn said Tuesday that while he wants to make local schools and community colleges responsible for the cost of teachers’ retirements, it isn’t an “essential” part of his immediate plans to cut spending for the state’s troubled pensions systems.
In a meeting with the Daily Herald editorial board, the Democratic governor said he’d like the General Assembly to take up the controversial proposal to shift the state’s share of pension costs to local schools before lawmakers are scheduled to leave Springfield May 31.
But, Quinn said, he’ll focus more in the coming weeks on getting legislators to approve his proposal, announced last week, to have teachers pay more toward their pensions and to raise the retirement age to 67. […]
“We want to deal with that accountability principle, but we’ll do it on a separate track,” Quinn said.
* April 25th, 2012…
Two of Gov. Pat Quinn’s top media spokespersons, Kelly Kraft and Brooke Anderson, just called to try and clarify the governor’s position on the proposal to shift employer pension costs to schools and universities. […]
But to characterize his comments as backing away from the proposal is “not his position at all,” the spokespeople said.
“In no way shape or form do we want it to get out there that he’s backed away,” I was told. “Nobody here has been talking about that, including the governor.”
“This is something the governor supports. He thinks it should be part of the legislation.”
* November 14th, 2012, Quinn was asked whether the cost-shift was still a major component of his pension reform plan…
“I don’t think we should let one particular segment of a reform bill hold up progress. So, uh, what we want to do is negotiate and figure out a good plan that saves taxpayers money and still maintains and rescues the pension system.”
* November 16th, 2012…
“It’s not confusing. I favor that (the cost shift),” Quinn said Friday at a separate news conference. “I think it should be done that everybody who is involved in government when they negotiate a contract should have a stake in having to pay for the pensions that are part of the contract.”
* November 18th, 2012…
Still, as he took questions from reporters, Quinn stopped short of his previous demand that any comprehensive pension plan should gradually shift the cost of pensions for teachers outside Chicago from the state onto local school districts — and local property taxpayers. Suburban Republicans and Democrats have adamantly opposed the cost shift.
Transcript…
REPORTER: Does it include the suburban, Downstate teacher pensions being transferred over to those schools?
QUINN: There’s a number of parts to the pension reform that I laid out that can really deal with this issue that can reduce and eliminate the liability. One of those is a principle of accountability for all of those who are involved in employing public workers. And I’m anxious to continue that discussion and I think, uh, we need to have that with our members of the Legislature. But I think really part of that discussion has to involve the people who pay the taxes, who are citizens of Illinois who are concerned about their kids’ future and their grandkids’ future.
Audio…
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
We can only imagine the brainstorming sessions with Quinn’s leadership team that resulted in Squeezy and his artistic rendering: an orange snake coiled around the state Capitol, his (or maybe her) forked tongue slithering into an open window ominously. Which ideas ended up on the cutting room floor? Buddy the Bankrupt Bear? The Great Disappearing Dollar, Bill? Puff the Magic Draggin’? What about Peter, Peter Pension Eater?
* The Question: Which other ideas ended up on the cutting room floor?
Have fun. Keep it clean. Thanks.
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First test on Latino rights coming soon
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’ve been telling my subscribers about this push lately, in context of the unexpectedly strong Latino vote this year…
Virtually every big-name politician in Illinois, with the exception of the two Republican legislative leaders, will gather Tuesday to support an upcoming push to license as many as 250,000 undocumented immigrants to drive in Illinois.
In a nearly unprecedented show of support, Gov. Pat Quinn, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar, GOP state comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and state Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) plan to sign on to the immigrant-rights driving initiative and attend Tuesday’s press conference in support of it.
The event, sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, aims to highlight legislation in the works that would equip undocumented immigrants with three-year temporary driver’s licenses, said Lawrence Benito, chief executive officer and executive director for the group.
The proposal that likely will be voted on sometime during the post-election legislative session that spans from later this month through early January will be a variation from 2007 legislation for undocumented immigrant drivers that narrowly passed the House but failed to get called for a vote in the Senate, he said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as hard a sell [as 2007], but we’re belts-and-suspenders people. We’ll work until it gets signed into law,” said Benito said. “I do think there will be strong bipartisan support for it based on who’s showing up [Tuesday].”
* Treasurer Dan Rutherford is among the Republicans not scheduled to appear today. More from the Sun-Times…
Not on Tuesday’s lineup of political attendees is House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont).
“This is the closest thing that Springfield sees to the immigration debate. If the Republican Party wants to show good faith in doing outreach to the Latino and immigrant community, this is a bill that would show good faith, that they weren’t Johnny-come-latelys.”
A Cross spokeswoman said she was not certain what Cross’ posture on the legislation would be and noted that the House Republican caucus has not yet met to discuss the initiative.
* The Republicans have paid a lot of lip service to Latinos since election day. But this will be one of the first opportunities in the country to actually court that vote. Edgar and Topinka know what’s what. Others? Maybe not so much. The right wing hates it. But one of the far Right’s Illinois heroes has recently jumped on board…
Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran is backing proposed legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses, saying it’s an economic imperative for our financially struggling state.
“We need them to be getting to work,” Curran said. “We need them to have driver’s licenses.” […]
Elected sheriff as a Democrat in 2006 and re-elected as a Republican in 2010, Curran initially had a fairly hard-line view. He was the first sheriff in Illinois to request jail officers be given formal deportation powers, and he backed a program that helps identify illegal immigrants arrested in the county.
By early 2010, however, Curran was endorsing national immigration reform and calling for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
A devout Catholic, Curran has said discussions with Catholic leaders prompted the change in attitude.
He quoted the biblical Gospel of Matthew when explaining his position, saying, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Just a few years ago, Sheriff Curran wanted deportation powers for his deputies.
Illinois Review claims that Edgar and Topinka “defied the Illinois Republican Party’s policy platform on the issue.” But a party platform is not holy writ. If it was, a whole lot of people on both sides of the aisle would be routinely excommunicated.
* Video of the press conference is available here.
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Madigan the diplomat?
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* An Azerbaijani news agency report…
Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov received the delegation led by Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael J. Madigan, the parliament’s press service told APA. Ogtay Asadov said that the US and Azerbaijan have a strategic partnership: “Currently, the working group on the US-Azerbaijan interparliamentary relations is functioning at the Azerbaijani Parliament. We want such working groups to be established mutually with the various states of the US, including Illinois.”
Michael J. Madigan highly estimated the rapid development of Azerbaijan, direction of oil incomes to new spheres, especially information technologies. The guest said that the development and implementation of special projects by the government of Azerbaijan on information technologies were estimable: “The Illinois State will get benefit from the experience of Azerbaijan in this sphere in the future.”
The sides exchanged view on organizing of mutual visits, interparliamentary cooperation, exchange of experience in the legislation sphere and etc.
Madigan’s spokesman said he was in Turkey last week and this Azerbaijan excursion was a “side trip,” but did not know any details about the visit.
* More…
The House of Representatives of Illinois state (USA), will provide the necessary financial support for cooperation of the state finance funds with the Azerbaijani State Fund for Development of Information and Communication Technologies, the House Speaker Michael Madigan said at a meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov, the ministry report stated.
Appreciating the achievements of Azerbaijan, the speaker spoke about the work implemented in the state of Illinois, including Chicago.
Discuss.
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