Retirees Safe?

This was e-mailed to us, purportedly from Greg Bella's Facebook page:

• [Emanuel] met with F.O.P. PAC. Stated he will not change benefits that retired city employees are receiving. He does believe he can change the pension benefits for active employees. Pensions cannot be diminished or impaired because of constitutional protections and prior court rulings. Emmanuel has since backed off and now states that he will sit down with the unions to discuss pension issues.

We aren't sure of the mechanisms in place, but if you're vested in the pension or hired under certain rules, then those promises are pretty solid from a legal standpoint. Someone versed in the legalese might be able to explain it better?

In any event, the various unions are girding for battle:

• Leaders of several unions representing city workers weren't ready to take on Rahm Emanuel a day after he was elected mayor, despite his campaign promise to press for benefit reductions because of the city's looming budget crisis.
  
  "I don't think anybody really knows what to expect right now," said Chicago firefighters union president Tom Ryan, who left his congratulations to Emanuel in a voice mail Wednesday. "It's definitely going to be an adjustment period."
  
  Both the firefighters and police unions backed the candidacy of second-place finisher Gery Chico. Ryan said he plans to "proceed with caution" as Emanuel prepares to take office in May, while police union president Mark Donahue promised to work with the new mayor "as diligently as possible."

"work with" better mean "fight tooth and nail" in these circumstances.