73 News - A bi-monthly publication for SEIU Local 73 members2

As 2015 comes to An end, we close the book on A successful And difficult yeAr.

Among our victories in 2015• We were successful in our fight for pension fairness when the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled changes to public worker pensions were unconstitutional.

• Fought to raise the minimum wage in Chicago to $13 an hour and continued to fight for $15 an hour nationally.

• Defended members’ rights, jobs, and won fair contracts for thousands of workers across Illinois and northwest Indiana.

This doesn’t include the fight we have faced in Springfield, where the billionaire governor has set out to destroy unions in Illinois. While our fight and our allies have been successful at defeating the governor’s anti-union agenda this year, that all could change if we don’t fight back in 2016.

The box to the right shows how important this upcoming year is to the fate of union rights, wages, and benefits for public workers in Illinois. With every state representative and two-thirds of state senators up for reelection, it is more important than ever to get out and vote for those who will support us.

Keeping a majority in the Illinois House and Senate will allow us to keep up a strong fight against the governor and his 1% buddies i Failure could mean job loss, decreased benefits, and union rights being eliminated in Illinois.

Failure is not an option!• Talk to your family and friends about the importance of the 2016 elections.

• Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote and votes in the March Primary and November General Elections.

• Contribute to COPE to make sure we have the resources needed for this fight.

The next year will not be easy, but it is up to each and every one of us to fight back! Find out how to get involved!

State Representative Carol Ammons (pictured above with Local 73 members) is the wife of Aaron Ammons, an Executive Board member from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Carol ran a grassroots campaign and won her election to become the 103rd District State Representative in 2014 and is up for reelection in 2016. We need more candidates like Carol, and we need your support to help them help us in Springfield!

ADJUNCTS CONTINUE ORGANIZING FOR BRIGHTER FUTUREFACULTY AT TWO CHICAGO UNIVERSITIES FILE FOR UNION ELECTIONAdjunct faculty at two prestigious Chicago universities have led the way in what will hopefully be a turning point in the lives of thousands of non-tenured faculty at private universities and colleges in 2016.

In October, adjunct faculty at the University of Chicago became the first private university in Chicago to file for a union election with Local 73 under the Faculty Forward campaign. Just a few weeks later, hundreds of non-tenured track faculty at Loyola University Chicago’s main campus filed for a union election. The two groups of full-time and part-time adjunct faculty have come together to fight for a better life for not only themselves, but better conditions for their students as well.

Union victories at the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago would send a strong message to other private colleges and universities in Chicago that adjunct faculty is ready to have their voices heard!

Results of the University of Chicago union election were expected December 9, with Loyola’s election results coming later. Check our website at www.seiu73.org for updates on the elections!

73 News - A bi-monthly publication for SEIU Local 73 members3

Matt Hoffmann, adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology, speaks to the crowd at the Fight for $15 rally November 10.

STILL FIGHTING: REVERSE THE IMMORAL CUTS TO CPS SPECIAL EDUCATIONEarlier this year, Chicago Public Schools laid off hundreds of employees and threatened thousands more layoffs were on the way if they did not receive nearly $500 million in additional funding from Springfield.

These immoral cuts had a heavy impact on special education students. Local 73 responded with an immediate campaign to restore our jobs and the level of care required by special education students. We set out to expose the callous and illegal way in which the Board was improperly slashing the levels of care it is legally bound to provide. Last month, we presented evidence that the Board had the wrong census numbers in school after school.

CPS parents, advocacy organizations, other unions, and many others have joined together to create a special education task force to fight back against these cuts, and have been successful! Just before Thanksgiving, CPS officials announced their funding formula was flawed and they would be restoring funds to special education for next school year! Restoring funds will bring back hundreds of much-needed special education jobs in Chicago schools!

Even with this victory, this fight is far from over! If you would like to be part of the task force and have a voice in restoring Special Education funding to Chicago schools, contact the Member Resource Center at 312.588.7630.