My good friend, Fred Klonsky, will be attending the biennial convention of the 40,000 member Illinois Retired Teachers Association tomorrow, October 30th. He states: “I’m looking forward to hearing from our attorney, John Fitzgerald. John is with the firm of Tabet, DiVito & Rothstein. It was Gino DiVito who gave the main oral argument before the Illinois Supreme Court in the historic case that preserved pensions for current retirees and those in the public pension systems. John will bring us up to day on the legal shenanigans that continue around our public pensions. I will be taking copious notes." The video sound turns on at 15:00; DiVito addresses the Supreme Court at 37:00.
"West Lake Shore Unit, of the Illinois Retired Teachers' Association, will be there too with 21 delegates"-Marge Sucansky, president of WLSU.
ReplyDeleteYes, we will be at the IRTA Convention eager to hear John (& "take copious notes"), because Rauner & the IL G.A. are NOT giving up in trying to take away teacher pensions. That having been said, for those of you who are retired, I strongly urge you to join both your local & state RTA (simply Google IRTA & sign up for state membership at the website, or send them your info. w/a check; the website will also have info. about the local in your area).
ReplyDeletePLEASE join--there is strength in numbers. Also, if you aren't retiring until a few years from now, you may have FREE "pipeline" membership--that info. is also available on the website.
Finally, if you're already a member, PLEASE donate to the IRTA Legal Defense Fund. IRTA was first to jump in & to file the successful lawsuit against SB 1 (which kaboshed our pensions) of several years ago, taking it to the IL Supreme Court, which declared it unconstitutional.
It's not over (as I'm sure we will find out from John tomorrow). Make sure to read Fred Klonsky's Blog posts this week; he'll have a thorough report.