Association of Civil Service Employees

Association of Civil Service Employees (ACsE), P. O. Box 5, Carbondale IL 62903-0005

IEA Representative Assembly

Cathy Lilley, ACsE President, and Brenda Prell, ACsE Vice President for Communications, attended the 155th meeting of the IEA Representative Assembly (IEA RA) along with 1,100+ other delegates from throughout the state. Delegates are

teachers, higher education personnel, educational support professionals, retirees and student members. The RA, the highest policy-making body of the Association, brought together representatives to act on resolutions, reports and recommendations of the Board of Directors and motions by fellow delegates. The meeting is the culmination of a year long effort to ensure that member needs and interests are integrated into the daily workings of the organization. Initially, delegates attended open hearings where they gathered crucial information on issues facing the Association. The days following were spent conducting business and making policy, including the all-important discussions on how your dues dollars will be spent in the coming year.

Special guests at this year's R.A. were Governor Pat Quinn, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Comptroller Daniel Hynes, and Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. You can visit the IEA website for more informaton at http://www.ieanea.org/RA2009.aspx.

Mark your calendars for next Thursday, February 26th. ACsE will be holding a General Membership Meeting in the

Student Center, Illinois Room at noon.

Topics for discussion will include:

Sexual Harassment Policy

Contract Bargaining (ours expires June 30, 2009)

Membership Recruitment Incentive Proposal

*** If you bring a guest, you may enter your name into a drawing to

win a $25 gift certificate ***

If your guest becomes a member of ACsE at the meeting, your guest may also enter the drawing for a $25 gift certificate!!

IEA needs your help. Can you please click on this subcontracting survey link?

Subcontracting hurts us all. Please take ten minutes before March 4 and complete the online survey about subcontracting found at:

www.ieanea.org/survey/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=8201l52

(Please note if typing the above URL, the Survey ID has a lower case “L” after the number one.)

Thank you from the IEA Joint Subcontracting Task Force.

Union bargaining and feedback on sexual harassment policies and procedures

ACsE VP of Communications

What do you know about the Constitutional Convention? Here is a message from Ken Swanson, President of IEA.

October 6, 2008

Colleagues:

I want briefly to talk with you about one of the key matters you will be voting on this Election Day, the proposal that Illinois have a new Constitutional Convention, aka Con-Con.

Please feel free to forward this message to your members.

I urge you to

VOTE NO on the Con-Con proposal. Here's why:

Pensions

Opening up the state constitution could mean the

pensions of education employees may be preyed upon by those who want to fix the state budget without raising taxes.

While some Con-Con supporters claim the federal government would protect earned benefits, in fact,

there is no guarantee of this.

Anything less than a 100 percent certainty that pensions for IEA members will remain untouched is unacceptable, therefore the IEA position is NO on Con-Con.

Can They be trusted?

It would be illogical for voters who are outraged by the poor performance of state government to entrust the very same policymakers with the responsibility of rewriting the constitution, yet that is exactly what voting for a Con-Con means.

If the Con-Con proposal is approved, the

Illinois General Assembly will have the responsibility for organizing the convention. The people most likely to be elected to serve as delegates will be hand-picked by the same powerful people who run state government right now. In fact, many of them will likely be delegates themselves.

Great Public Schools for Every Community

Cost

It is estimated that a

2010 Con-Con will cost more than $80 million!

At a time when the national economy is fluctuating wildly and the state already fails to provide

adequate funding to districts statewide, that is way too much money for something we don't need and that won't address the state's problems.

What you can do

Copy and distribute the VOTE NO flyer found through

this link

. Talk with your members about the importance of defeating this proposal and urge them to talk with their

families and friends. The three main points:

•

The pensions of education employees and other government workers would be at risk with a Con-Con.

•

A Con-Con will cost more than $80 million. We can't afford it.

•

The people running state government would run the Con- Con. Do you really want to give them the keys

to the constitution?

You will be receiving a Con-Con brochure in the mail soon, but

the time to act is now.

Urge everyone you know to VOTE NO ON CON-CON.

Thank you for all you do. We'll talk again soon.

>> Contact

Illinois Education Association-NEA

Direct: 217/544-0706 or 1/800-252-8076

Web:

www.ieanea.org

Election Time is here!

It's time to become a dues-paying member of ACsE. The Bargaining Team was instrumental in acquiring longevity increases that for the first time in history are NOT taken out of the across the board increases. Because of this, pay increases for the two years of our contract range between 3.5% and 8.4% in year one and then 3%-6.5% in year two! Very Exciting!!

Please click here for the payroll deduction form as well as here for the IEA membership form and follow the instructions. Feel free to contact any member of the Executive Committee if you have any questions.