An Alternative View of Our Pension and Union
2026 Survey Results
Thank you if you participated in the survey, over 5 days a little more than 420 respondents took the survey. The respondents are broken down as 86% Fire and 14% EMS. Respondents were further broken down as 72% active members and 28% retirees, with the average year active respondents came on as 2010 and 1988 for retirees. The earliest a respondent came on the job is 1962.
I ranked the questions in order of those that respondents felt strongest about. It isn’t surprising that the membership feels strongest about securing pension funding, and transparent fair promotional exams based on ability. Ignoring residency, because the issue seemed polarizing depending on whether you are active or retired, the issue the members most strongly disagreed with involved the amount of money the Local 2 Executive Board spent on the union hall remodel, believing the $4.2 million was not a wise investment.
For the portion of the survey that had you rank the importance of issues – Pension Funding, Local 2 Transparency, and Manning ranked as the top issues.
I did hear the criticism from members that the survey neglected to address the need for more ambulances, and for that I apologize. Maybe the new Executive Board will finally conduct a similar survey and include that issue on their questionnaire. Stay safe and get involved!
-Tim McPhillips-
Past Newsletters
Members of our pension fund may have read the recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Editorial - Chicago Pensions on the Brink: Some city funds can be considered ‘technically insolvent’. The Retirement Board, which administers our pension fund, responded with a letter to...
An alternative view of our Union and Pension Fund Let’s face it, this department runs on rumors. The less concrete information the City or Local 2 puts out the more these rumors take up legs and start to walk and talk at the firehouse kitchen tables and morning roll...
Local 2 Brothers and Sisters. All Local 2 members in good standing should be receiving their ballot for the Local 2 Executive Board election this week. I must admit, I am a little surprised that with all the recent issues facing the membership, this ballot looks...
For decades the Local 2 membership has had discussions on the effectiveness of giving money to politicians. Critics contend that political contributions do not affect the outcome of any efforts put forth by Local 2 when securing salary, benefits and working...
Local 2 members, do you know what your pension is worth? I say it is worth $3,333,772. Obviously, it isn’t the same for everyone, it is a function of rank, time on the job and years of service. Also, how long you live matters quite a bit. If you get run over by a...
During the most recent campaign for pension fund trustee I was asked numerous times to counter some of the conflicting information between myself and the leadership of Local 2 who were supporting my opponent Tony Martin. Specifically, I was asked - Did a theft...
When I first became a trustee seven years ago, I would occasionally have members ask me if they could take a refund of their contributions from the pension fund. My answer was typically – “Don’t do it. But if you want to, as long as you are under 50 you can have...
Brothers and Sisters, This year is the first year that the City has put into our pension fund what professional actuaries believe is an adequate amount of money to start properly funding our pension fund to secure our retirement benefits. Finally, after decades of...
As a Chicago firefighter or paramedic, do you believe your public sector union dues, spent on political contributions, are beneficial to your long term financial security or your families’ well-being? Do you know how much of your monthly union dues end up in the...
LEGAL THEFT AT OUR PENSION FUND Over the years, as your pension fund trustee, I have written newsletters in an attempt to counter who I call the City Apologists, those that try to discount or discredit any genuine concern for our pension fund’s integrity. Many of...