Union leaders, pension recipients get death threat

By CARL GREEN
Illinois Correspondent

Springfield, IL – Legislators, plus state employees, teachers and their union leaders, were threatened recently in letters sent to them in support of reducing their pensions.

The letter, mailed from Champaign, is entitled “Dead People Can’t Collect Fat State Pensions.” It calls for removal of the pension protection clause in the state constitution and reduction of state-funded pensions.

It suggests recent accidental deaths may have actually been “conscious decisions of people with nothing left to lose to ‘take one with me’” and ends by saying, “Repeal or requiem. Last chance or last rites. Choose wisely.”

The Secretary of State Police increased patrols at the Capitol. House Republican spokesman Eleni Demertzis acknowledged members receiving the letter.

“We receive or are subject to numerous letters of a threatening nature. Unfortunately, it seems the rhetoric and intensity of these letter campaigns has increased in recent weeks.”

LABOR RESPONSE
Kathi Griffin, president of the Illinois Education Association, said the letter writer obviously needs mental health services.

“People who are well do not make threats like this,” Griffin said. “And I am hoping that nothing happens to anyone, and I’m hoping that we find whoever this person is, and I hope that we’re able to help them. I feel confident that our police will find who is behind this, and I feel confident that this is someone who is acting solo, and I’m going to be just fine.”

(Information from the State Journal-Register and Capitol Fax.)