A coalition of labor unions on Monday asked a court in Springfield to prevent a new state law aimed at curbing Illinois’ public employee pension debt from taking effect next month until questions about its constitutionality have been resolved.þþThe legal filing in Sangamon County by We Are One Illinois came more than a week after a similar request was made on behalf of a group representing current and retired state university employees.þþThe pension law, approved by lawmakers and signed into law in December, sets a goal of wiping out the state’s $100 billion retirement debt within 30 years by reducing automatic cost-of-living increases for existing and future retirees while requiring workers to work longer before retiring.þþ“The pension theft bill must not be implemented before the courts have ruled,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said in a statement. The coalition includes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Illinois Education Association and other public worker unions.þþThe union coalition’s request to delay the June 1 implementation of the law follows up on several lawsuits it and other groups have filed to challenge the law’s constitutionality. Under the Illinois Constitution, public employee pensions are a “contractual relationship” with benefits that cannot be “diminished or impaired.”þþ“Pension system members will suffer irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law absent an injunction,” the coalition’s request to the court said. It said the pension law “will force decisions to be made and actions to be taken…that cannot be unwound should the court agree that (the law) violates the constitution.”þþLast month, in an appearance before the Illinois Education Association, a re-election seeking Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn said he was “open minded” on requesting that the state seek a stay of the law until it worked its way through the courts.
Source: Chicago Tribune
