14 January 2015

AFSCME Sub-chapter 161

Dear member:

Greetings from the Executive Board of AFSCME Retirees, Subchapter 161.

This email is being sent to all members of the subchapter for whom we have confirmed email addresses. Some members may have been added to our subchapter only recently and so may be new to our list of recipients.  For the benefit of such new recipients: we use this list in order to inform members of upcoming meetings (see below), communicate information quickly, and conserve the dues of our membership which would otherwise be spent on postal mailings. We also have a “bulletin board” website (http://www.afscmeretirees161.org) that is accessible to all and contains additional useful information and a forum for expressions of members’ opinions. So as not to disturb you excessively, we try to restrict emailings to once or twice a month unless something requires your urgent attention. You may contact us by sending an email to:afscmeretirees161@gmail.com.

We will meet again at Ruby Tuesdays Restaurant at 5203 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, Il., on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 . The meeting starts at 11 AM.

Our guest speaker will be Ms. Emily Stewart of the Illinois Alliance For Retired Americans.

Our Sub-Chapter joined the Alliance 2 years ago. Each of you is a member. This organization has been a great resource for information affecting our Social Security, Medicare, as well as other Federal and State provided senior services. ILARA is quick to respond to any attempt to diminish or cancel the programs we rely on. In the past, many of our Sub-chapter members have participated in supporting ILARA actions. Given the political change in Washington and Springfield, we need to be educated and prepared for the realities we will face.

You don’t want to miss this talk and the discussion that will follow.

Sincerely,

Charles Hogan,
President
(afscmeretirees161@gmail.com)

1 December 2014

AFSCME Sub-chapter 161

Dear member:

We will meet again at Ruby Tuesdays Restaurant at 5203 Old Orchard Road, Skokie,Il. on Wednesday, December 17th. The meeting starts at 11 AM.

This will be a working meeting for members. Rauner’s election has added an urgency to our efforts of developing an active retiree Sub-Chapter.

Because of all the past work, we will be building on what we have done as individuals and with others. I have sought the counsel of our Executive Board. They have defined the threat. Additionally, we identified challenges and possible opportunities. A list has been compiled. When approved by the board members, I’ll have John Metz post it on our Website. I have forwarded a description of six levels of competence of our active members. Please read it. We will be referring to both in order to prioritize our goals and the means we have to reach them. It will be part of the workshop plan you will help to create.

The is an old union expression that there is strength in numbers. It says a lot, but misses a lot. The strength is in working associations old and new. It is in the trust we have in one another. Welcome to the fight.

Sincerely,

Charlie Hogan

12 Nov 2014

AFSCME Sub-chapter 161

Dear member:

We will meet again at Ruby Tuesdays Restaurant at 5203 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, Il. on Wednesday, November 19th. The meeting starts at 11 AM.

Our speaker will be Mr. Larry Spivak. He is the Field Director of AFSCME Council 31. In addition to union work, Larry is the President of the Illinois Labor History Society. Because of his work in both areas, he brings a unique perspective to our recent defeat.

Come to this meeting to learn and be re-energized. It would also be a good idea to bring a little discretionary money. Larry always comes with Labor history books and membership application cards to supplement his great talk. So move your doctor appointments, adjust you agendas, because you won’t want to miss this meeting.

To those of you who gave up time to attend Exec Board meetings, help with the mailing, and worked person to person to get out votes–my profound thanks. Work done is just that. We will use it to grow and continue fighting.

Sincerely,

Charlie Hogan

The Executive Board of Subchapter 161 urges our members, their families, friends, and fellow citizens of Illinois to vote for Pat Quinn and against Bruce Rauner.

Click to go directly to our Election 2014 page.

29 October 2014

Dear Member:

I phone banked for Quinn votes last night. In 90 minutes, the 16 phoners ran through the program’s list of AFSCME members and retirees in northern Illinois. This is my impression.

There is a shift in awareness among the members and retirees. They have received and understood Council 31’s message about Bruce Rauner. Many have already voted early for Pat Quinn. They are spreading the word, asking family and friends to vote for Quinn.

Several people thanked me for the call.

Publicly, the media has declared the Governor’s race a dead heat. It’s time to turn off mainstream media I’m urging you to vote and continue your personal get out the vote work. If this shift is happening, every effort you make will have more of a response among family, close friends, and neighbors. You have to ask them to vote for Quinn.

Feel free to e-mail me about your impressions from your GOTV actions. I’ll update you at this site on what I’ve observed. Meanwhile, work like hell.

Charlie Hogan
afscmeretirees161@gmail.com

PS: Our subchapter’s website can now be viewed at afscmeretirees161.org.  It now contains updated information on the 2014 gubernatorial election.

8 Oct 2014

 AFSCME Sub-chapter 161

 Dear member:

 We will meet again at Ruby Tuesdays Restaurant at 5203 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, Il. On Wednesday, Oct 15th.The meeting starts at 11 AM.

Our speaker will be Ms. Emily Stewart. She is the Director of the Illinois Alliance of Retired Americans. The ILARA’s focus is principally on threats to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This year, it is drawing the public’s attention to Bruce Rauner’s threat to our safety net programs in Illinois. Last month, it held a demonstration outside of Rauner’s loop campaign office. It was an organized action done by union retirees and union workers.

The balance of the meeting will be to discuss how to get out the member vote in order to defeat Rauner. We will have to vote on spending money for a mailer to all members.

 I have been phone banking at the Council 31 office. The calls are going to AFSCME members and retirees in Cook, Lake, and Dupage counties. As of Tuesday, October 7^th, we have reached 4000 of 16,000 members. The phones are being manned by workers and retirees. They are a great group to be working with every night. Roughly 80-85% of the members we reach are going to hold their noses and vote for Quinn. 5% are for Rauner and the rest haven’t made up their minds.

As of last night, I learned that Chicago Federation of Labor is calling the race a dead heat. Rauner at 44%, Quinn at 42%. Keep in mind, 6 months ago, Rauner had a comfortable 2 digit lead in the polls. In the CFL’s view this race will be won by the side that turns out their voters.

Sincerely,
Charlie Hogan

From: Charles Hogan President
AFSCME Retirees, Sub-chapter 161
October 2, 2014

This blogsite (Election 2014) contains material given to me at the PEOPLE Political conference held in Peoria as well as additional information handed to Sub-Chapter Presidents at our quarterly meeting in Springfield.

With last year’s legislative assault on our pensions and benefits, we have one option. The resolution adopted by the conference is provided below.  On the convention floor in Peoria, I watch one Local President after another rise to endorse Pat Quinn. None of them were Quinn’s friends. Their message was that they would vote for Quinn on the 4^th in order to defeat Rauner. On the 5^th of November, we go back to fighting Quinn’s and Madigan’s policies.

Please take the time to read the posted material, which we expect to update regularly. It can be a sanity shield. During the next five weeks, you will be targeted with a lot of political messages. Their effect will confuse and discourage undecided voters. The hope is that they will stay home and not vote.

But this isn’t a usual off year election. The budget problems in Springfield, combined with the effects of lawsuits of Harris v Quinn, & Citizen’s United have emboldened our enemies. They want to defeat AFSCME. Money is no object. If they can cripple public employee unions as they did in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, we could lose our pensions and benefits.

We have a two part plan:

• A person to person effort to get votes for Pat Quinn.

• Then calls to our legislators explaining what our pensions mean to us. They need to hear from constituents like us now and after the election. We want to make them understand that we won’t disappear after November 4^th. We aren’t going to pack up and wait for the 2016 election.

Sincerely,
Charlie Hogan

RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE DELEGATES TO THE AFSCME PEOPLE CONFERENCE—SEPTEMBER 13, 2014 WHEREAS: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner has launched an unrelenting, dishonest and mean-spirited attack on public employees and their unions; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner has made clear his deep-seated hostility to workers’ rights, whether in the public or private sector, calling for the establishment of “Right-to-Work” zones in Illinois, which would drastically undermine the economic security of working people; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner is trampling on a long tradition — going back to Abraham Lincoln — of Illinois Republicans who respected working people and honest labor, including support for the right to collective bargaining; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner has repeatedly attacked the very existence of unions that represent teachers, sanitation workers, correctional officers, caregivers, firefighters, and other public employees, stating that in his view, “by their nature…they’re immoral”; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner is a hedge fund billionaire who made a good part of his vast wealth from public pension funds, but now argues that public pensions should be completely abolished; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner has a documented record as a cutthroat venture capitalist who operated private care facilities that were found to have caused unnecessary suffering and death to hundreds of their elderly and disabled residents; who bought up companies and shipped their jobs overseas; and who sought to cheat his workers out of the wages and benefits they had earned; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner’s campaign is based on a web of lies and half-truths which mask an agenda that would slash funding for education, shift the tax burden from the wealthy to middle income families, and cut the wages of hundreds of thousands of working people; and WHEREAS:

Bruce Rauner owns nine homes and belongs to a wine club that costs $140,000 annually just to join, yet rails against the modest pay and benefits of public employees; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner says he will cut the pay and benefits of public employees, vowing to force them out on strike to impose his will; and WHEREAS: Bruce Rauner represents a profound threat to the decent standard of living and basic workplace rights that AFSCME members have fought so hard to attain; and WHEREAS: AFSCME Council 31 has pledged to do everything possible to defeat Bruce Rauner; and WHEREAS: Critical to defeating Bruce Rauner is ensuring that as many citizens as possible cast their votes for Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Pat Quinn; and WHEREAS: The serious differences that AFSCME has had with Governor Quinn over the past four years cannot stand as a barrier to taking the necessary actions to defeat Bruce Rauner. THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That AFSCME Council 31 recommends support for Pat Quinn for governor of the

13 September 2014

AFSCME Sub-chapter 161

Dear member;

We will meet again at Ruby Tuesdays Restaurant at 5203 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, Il. On Wednesday, September 17^th.The meeting starts at 11 AM.

Our guest speaker will be Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund field Representative, Ms. Bonnie Shadid. Whether an IMRF member or a non-member, you will find her presentation interesting and timely. IMRF isn’t setup like other public pensions. Currently, it is 96% funded. In spite of its fiscal strength, Representative Deborah Conroy attempted to pass a law that would have eliminated the 13^th check. This is only one of many attempts to alter a perfectly sound retirement Fund. Which leads me to conclude that we must stay vigilant while building our ability to protect our pensions.

This weekend, I will be attending the state-wide PEOPLE conference in Peoria, IL. There was a last minute request from Council 31 limiting retiree attendance to Sub-Chapter Presidents. There was an upsurge in the number of Local officers attending this conference. It’s a healthy sign of interest among the working members. There is a lot of work to be done before, during, and after this critical election by workers and retirees.

I will have a conference report for the meeting and a post at our website for those who can’t attend the meeting. There will be additional reports for you to read. The CTBA has 2 reports. One analyzing the budget passed by the Illinois legislature. The second analyzing Rauner’s plan for Illinois.

See you at the meeting.

Sincerely,
Charles Hogan, President

Click here to go to the CBTA home page (from where you can go to their specific reports).

Click here to go directly to the CBTA analysis of Bruce Rauner’s Blueprint.

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The Member’s Forum contains new material from Walter Esler.

There are now additional links (see sidebar), provided by Chaya Rubenstein who visited our meeting on August 20. Ms. Rubenstein is a member of S.O.R.E. (Skokie Organization of Retired Educators).