Progress Illinois

State legislative leaders may have worked out a historic overhaul to the state public employee pension system, but the courts could, in the end, decide the issue.

A coalition of labor unions is poised to file a lawsuit if the pension bill that sailed through the House Executive Committee this morning eventually clears both chambers and is signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn.

“We certainly hope it won’t come to that but we are prepared if it does,” says Anders Lindall, spokesman AFSCME Council 31, which represents public employees. Read more »

The We Are One coalition of unions is calling for a fair solution to the state's pension problem, "a crisis politicians themselves caused by failing for years to pay their share to public retirement systems," according to the group.

The coalition of unions representing public employees has launched an ad campaign to push back against proposals for pension reforms that, they say, will punish workers who have done their part to help the state deal with the consequences of years of chronically underfunding the retirement accounts.

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