Unions will continue challenge to City of Chicago pension cuts
SB 1922, legislation backed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, makes steep cuts to the pension benefits of active and retired City employees who participate in the Municipal Employees Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF) and the Laborers Fund. Last fall AFSCME and three other unions filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of that law.
In February, the court agreed to stay those proceedings because a legal challenge filed to an earlier law (SB 1), which cut the pensions of state employees and downstate teachers, was pending before the Illinois Supreme Court. It was anticipated that the ruling on SB 1 would have significant implications for any other laws that sought to reduce pension benefits.
On May 8, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling declaring SB 1 unconstitutional – and making clear that pension benefits already promised to employees and retirees could not be diminished or impaired.
“We had hoped that a ruling with such a high degree of clarity on SB 1 would persuade Mayor Emanuel to forgo his attempts to make similar changes to City of Chicago pensions,” Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “Unfortunately, the mayor immediately issued a statement asserting that SB 1922 is based on different premises and therefore can pass constitutional muster.”
AFSCME disagrees with the mayor’s contention. Therefore, on May 13, AFSCME, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Illinois Nurses Association and Teamsters Local 700 resumed their legal challenge to SB 1922, asking Cook County Circuit Judge Rita Novak to move quickly to consider the merits of the union challenge to Public Act 98-0641 (passed as SB 1922). The judge agreed and set a schedule for the case to proceed.
On the day of the status hearing, the unions issued this joint statement:
Our unions have said from the start that the city’s pension-cutting legislation is unconstitutional, as well as unfair. We filed suit in December on that basis.
Friday’s ruling of the Illinois Supreme Court was unanimous and unambiguous in voiding similar legislation that cut pensions of active and retired state employees, university employees, and teachers outside Chicago.
We believe the Supreme Court’s ruling leaves no room for doubt that Chicago’s pension cuts also violate the plain language of the pension clause. In light of that decision and the city’s credit downgrade, we urge Mayor Emanuel to stop wasting time and money in a futile attempt to defend these unconstitutional cuts, and instead work with us to develop fair and constitutional solutions to funding city retirement plans.
That’s why, today in Cook County circuit court, we asked Judge Novak to move quickly to consider the merits of our case. We believe that a quick decision is in the interest of all parties, including city employees and retirees, all other city residents and city government alike.