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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Finally got the news how my dues are being used

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Finally got the news how my dues are being used:

Finally got the news how my dues are being used

I'm a life-long union guy and always will be. It's in my DNA. I'm also a dues-paying member of AFSCME (Retirees)  the union I have counted on over the years to fight to protect my state university pension. 

Yesterday, I received an email from Chapter 31 President Virginia Yates and Henry Bayer, the Executive Director of AFSCME Council 31, both asking me to contact my State Representative to urge him to support the latest pension-bombing bill, SB 2404. The reason? They tell me that Sen. Cullerton's SB 2404 is a "much more reasonable approach" than Speaker Madigan's SB1 bill. Since neither pension bombing bill sounds "reasonable" to me, I wrote Yates this response:
Dear President Yates, 
If I indeed did call my representative urging him to support SB2404, he would probably think I was nuts on two grounds. First, if he had any sense, he might wonder why in the world would I want the legislature to pass