Teamsters Hold Steady Against Rush of Pension Reform Proposals

Joint Council, Local Unions Committed to Illinois Public Employees

With the Illinois General Assembly on a two-week recess until April 10, the Teamsters are priming to protect member benefits from a flurry of new bills targeting the state's drastically underfunded public employee pension systems.

Labor unions already quashed legislators' most severe pension reform proposal, Senate Bill 35, with a 23-30-3 vote on March 20. The bill would have negatively hit public employees with higher retirement ages and worker contributions, delayed cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) . . . continue reading here »

Please Welcome Trevor Clatfelter as Director of Governmental Affairs

Trevor J. Clatfelter has been a public servant and involved in government nearly his entire adult life. Mr. Clatfelter has held high level government positions for a substantial portion of his service. At the young age of 24, Mr. Clatfelter was appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate, Emil Jones Jr., to the position of Deputy Director of the Illinois General Assembly’s bi-partisan commission, the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission, now commonly known as the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA). Prior to his 12 ½ plus years of service as Deputy Director of COGFA, Mr. Clatfelter was employed as a budget analyst for the Illinois Senate, staffing the highly important Senate Appropriations Committee. Serving as a budget analyst and then Deputy Director of COGFA, Mr. Clatfelter has become a well respected expert on state finance, the state budget and economy, state revenue projections, state employee pensions, the State Employees’ Group Health Insurance Program, the state’s bonded indebtedness, the state’s capital plan, and the state facility closure process.