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© 2011 The Union Label Blog & Grassfire Nation
-By Warner Todd Huston
Once again a thuggish union official has used his ability to reach into our schools to push his partisan, anti-reform message on those public employees we call teachers and your tax dollars helped pay for it through his use of public facilities.
Last week the President of the Lake County Federation of Teachers used his ability to access the mailboxes of teachers at Zion-Benton Township High School to propagandize against efforts of local tax-reformers to fix the wild overspending of area school districts.
LCFT Prez Michael T. McGrue filled teachers mailboxes with a letter using a vile sexual reference to attack Tea Party opponents of big government spending and fearmongered at teachers telling them that tax reformers want to take away all their benefits and pensions. (Download .pdf of letter HERE)
Purportedly addressing his letter to “anti-tax zealots,” McGrue accused them of wanting to “take jobs away from the public sector” so that they could “keep more” for themselves. Naturally these are simply the hatemongering lies of an over paid union thug desperate to make sure that he can keep the riches of which he’s become accustomed.
One has but to remember the recent blockbuster stories about union thug and Director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Steven Preckwinkle, who along with his fellow unionista David Piccioli, it was discovered had not only ripped off the state of Illinois for millions in unearned state pension payments, but also arranged for all his kids and some of his relatives to get a free education at state universities. All off the backs of the taxpayers.
This is the sort of corruption you get when your government allows its employees to unionize, for sure.
One candidate in the area, though, is not ignoring this outrageous ignorance exhibited by a tax-paid union chieftain. Lennie Jarratt, a State Senate candidate for the 31st district, has made some comments about this incident.
Jarratt, it should be noted, has been an active school reform activist in north western Illinois for sometime.
Jarratt has sent out the following press release:
(Round Lake Beach, IL – December 11, 2011) Lennie Jarratt responds to the attack on the parents, taxpayers, teachers, school board members, and businesses of Zion-Benton High School District 126 by Lake County Federation of Teachers President Mike McGue.
“Someone needed to respond to Mr. McGue. His attack on the citizens of the Zion-Benton area was excessive and uncalled for. He has chosen his personal agenda and political influence over the needs of the families and businesses of Zion, Winthrop Harbor, Beach Park and Wadsworth.”, Jarratt said.
Dear Anti-Taxpayer Democratic Activist Mike McGue,
Teachers deserve a fair wage and the Zion-Benton District 126 offer of 10% over the next three years is a generous offer given the current financial difficulties of Lake County, the State of Illinois and our entire country. This offer is extremely generous with the fact that the district pays the entire 10.3753% into the Teacher Retirement System on top of the salary.
A few facts that may help you understand the true financial problems facing the families and businesses of District 126:
- Property taxes in Lake County are the highest in the Midwest
- Property taxes in Lake County are the 16th highest in the country
- Illinois unemployment rate has risen from 9.0% to 10% since the Legislature passed the 66% tax increase on individuals and 45% on corporations
- 1 in 158 homes in Zion received foreclosure notices in October
- 1 in 271 homes in Lake County received foreclosure notices in October
Businesses and families are leaving Lake County and the State of Illinois. Yet we have people like you, Mr. McGue, calling people names and making personal attacks. You are even using your position as LCFT President and your relationship with the Benton Teacher Union President, your wife Corrine, to bully and intimidate the District 126 community.
I am running for State Senate to promote the change of public policy to help families and businesses instead of the politics
of personal destruction that people like you use. Families and businesses are losing their jobs and homes. They cannot afford to keep cutting back because school boards are bullied into a contact that rewards the teachers at the top end of the pay scale while harming those at the bottom.I would like to suggest a solution to help the teachers at the bottom of the pay scale. Have the teachers at the top end of the pay scale like your wife whose compensation was over $92,0004 last year get smaller raises over the next 3 years. Use the additional monies to share with those younger, struggling teachers making under $40,000 so they can get more than 10% over the next 3 years. This will help those teachers pay their college loans.
-By Warner Todd Huston
You might recall in October when it was discovered that a few union bosses had paid off Illinois lawmakers to write a law that allowed union bosses to serve as a substitute teacher for one day in order to qualify them for state pensions for life. Well, apparently one of those union bosses also got freebies from the state for his kids and extended family.
Steven Preckwinkle, the Director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, not only got a free pension for life paid for by the taxpayers of Illinois after being a “teacher” for only one day, but the Chicago Tribune has discovered that Preckwinkle also got free college tuition for his kids and a nephew, also courtesy of the taxpayers.
Through a spokesman, Preckwinkle said that his undeserved pension and the freebie education for his kids was perfectly legitimate and that “political connections played no role” in his amazing good fortune. If you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
The whole situation with Preckwinkle and fellow unionista David Piccioli is an affront to the people of Illinois and is just more proof that the political climate in Illinois is set up to benefit insiders not the people of Illinois.
The union thug’s kids got their free tuition through what is called a “legislative scholarship,” a program that allows Springfield pols to give away college tuition waivers to anyone they please. Governor Quinn has proposed eliminating the program but is meeting resistance in Springfield.
The Tribune also highlighted the crooked quid pro quo that occurs every single day in Illinois.
The pol that gave Preckwinkle his free tuition packages was Springfield Representative Mike Curran. Curran left the legislature in 1995 and guess where he works now? Yep, the very union that Preckwinkle works for.
After he left the state legislature Mike Curran got hired as a “consultant” by the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
Yeah. Imagine that, eh?
In the meantime, Preckwinkle gave hundreds if not thousands of dollars to Mike Curran’s various political campaigns. Quid pro quo.
This is the sort of corrupt bargain you get when you allow state employees to unionize. The best solution to eliminate such insider dealing, fraud, waste of tax dollars, and corruption is to eliminate all public employee unions.
Meanwhile and unsurprisingly, the children of Red Chinese Communist Party members are living lives of luxury in China while the rest of the nation struggles in poverty. Is it a parallel to the corrupt situation in Illinois? What do you think?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Two union organizers that represent the Illinois Federation of Teachers were able to secure millions in state pensions by working one day as a teacher here in Illinois. This outrageous abuse of the state pension system is exactly why government unions should not be allowed to exist.
The Chicago Tribune has the story of Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli who took advantage of a loophole to enrich themselves off the backs of the taxpayers written into law just for them by pliant Democrat politicians.
The crony legislation enabled the unionistas to quickly get state teaching certificates, work one day as a substitute teacher, then count their years as union operatives to qualify them for pension benefits from the state.
Preckwinkle (no relation to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle), for instance, will get something in the amount of $108,000 a year in pension benefits… all for working one day for the state.
Naturally, this little payoff law was written by Democrats who were steeped in campaign donations from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
It is also pretty clear that these two crooks were given a heads up that they could benefit from this cronyism sponsored by Democrats. Both men began the process of getting their teaching certificates and otherwise preparing to take advantage of this law before it was even written. And they both satisfied the requirements of the law in the short window allowing for such things.
Unsurprisingly, neither union thug is willing to talk to the press about their thievery.
This is the perfect story to illustrate the fact that government unions are nothing but corruption from beginning to end. The fact that union thugs can have paid-off Democrats write special laws to give said union thugs millions in tax money goes to prove that the whole situation is built for graft and corruption.
A union member should not have cate blanche to write laws that allow him to raid the public treasury. Unfortunately, that is the only possible outcome when allowing government unions.
This is why government unions are antithetical to good government, disdainful of democracy, and entirely destructive. Government unions should be shut down and made illegal.
Sadly, many Illinois Republicans also supported this bill proving how corrupt that party is, too.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Now this is the sort of corruption we are used to seeing in Illinois, eh? This week the Chicago Tribune and WGN TV has found up to 23 retired union operatives that are collecting millions in taxpayer dollars because they had pals in government tweak the state’s pensions laws to favor them.
These former government workers that were government union members got pliant politicians to alter the pensions laws to say that their pension remuneration would be calculated not on the lower pay they received when they retired from government, but from the much higher salary they received when they worked as union operatives. These folks worked as union bosses at the same time as working on the clock for government.
The “luck” of former union boss and Dept. of Streets and Sanitation worker Thomas Villanova is a typical example. Villanova last worked full-time for the city in 1989 and made $40,000-a-year. But he was also a union big wig making $198,000 annually upon his retirement in 2008 at age 56. His city pension, it appears, was calculated on the union salary of $198,000 instead of his real salary of $40,000 — itself obviously a no-show job in the first place.
Villanova stands to make millions off the taxpayers.
Speaking of making millions, as mentioned above, the media folks also found some 20 more government union members that could make a combined $56 million in unearned pensions off the taxpayer’s back.
One of these crooks even retired at 50-years-old, then was hired back by the city for one day so that he could bump up his pension returns!
Worse, I was listening to a local Chicago radio program and one of the reporters involved in this story was saying that there may be several hundred more union/government workers that are similarly getting cushy, undeserved riches from the state pension system.
All this at a time when the pensions system is about to crash because it is so deeply in the red.
Now, don’t imagine that these sort of sweetheart deals between politicians and government unions are only happening in Chicago. These deals are endemic throughout government at every level. From your smallest city to the county, state, and federal government, these union thugs are ripping us all off on a daily basis.
Without question, this is the sort of unethical, even criminal, double dealing that you get when government employees are allowed to unionize. These people are cozy with government officials and other elected folks, donate money to their campaigns so that rules can be changed in their favor, then live off the taxpayers for decades. And for the cash in their pockets, politicians bend to union wishes every time. All the while the taxpayers get raped repeatedly.
Government workers should never, ever be allowed to unionize. Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew that!
If this isn’t just the way the most corrupt state in the country works, there’s nothing that will show it. As the state of Illinois loses businesses and her citizens lose their jobs by the thousands, government workers in Illinois get richer and government unions are even adding members. Now there’s more government union members in Illinois than ever leaching off a dwindling base of taxpayers.
As the state sinks in red ink, government unions have grown to the point where nearly 97% of the state’s government workers have become unionized with better pay, more lucrative pensions, and richer healthcare than every other average citizen who is forced to pay the government union member’s exorbitant pay.
According to the AP, more than 10,000 state employees have joined unions. This is a four-fold increase over the previous eight years.
John O’Connor makes some great points about Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s hypocrisy on his, too. Quinn is quietly trying to get the government unions in Illinois to give back some of their lucrative benefits because he knows that the union demands are killing the budget. Yet even as he is pushing unions to give back bennies, Quinn goes before the news cameras and lambastes Wisconsin’s governor for attacking the poor, poor unions!
What a slimeball politician Quinn has become.
It is plain that the unions are ignoring Quinn’s quiet, behind the scenes pleading, too. Applications for even more government unions are in the process.
Currently, the Labor Relations Board is considering 31 applications seeking unionization for more than 1,100 employees. That would bump up the number of unionized state employees to 96.5 percent from 94.3 percent, according to an analysis of CMS numbers.
So, what will union puppet Quinn do? Crack down, or shrug his shoulders and give in to unions like he has since he became the accidental governor of the Land of Lincoln?
Eric Odom (Media Director)
Vanguard of Freedom
Warner Todd Huston