During the telephone town hall meeting for Personal Assistants on Thursday, August 4, we covered four main topics:

• News about the State rescinding their overtime policy thanks to our class-action lawsuit, what will happen next, and our union’s plans to fight for back pay on behalf of PAs who worked more than 40 hours between May 1-August 2, but only put 40 hours on their time sheets to avoid discipline.
• Governor Rauner’s veto of our bill that would have protected our health insurance, training, and raised wages to $15/hour, and what’s next in our fight for $15 and our fight to protect healthcare and training.
• The background check policy: what we know and how we’re fighting back.
• The opportunity we have this November to win a super-majority in the General Assembly of lawmakers who stand with home care workers and people with disabilities.

State Rescinds Overtime Policy Facing SEIU Healthcare & ADAPT Class-Action Lawsuit

The State announced late on Tuesday, August 2, that the overtime policy would be rescinded effective immediately. This is a huge victory for Personal Assistants and people with disabilities all across Illinois! We truly have a lot of celebrate with this announcement- however; it is a temporary victory for now.

We have fought this terrible policy from day 1 with our allies in the disability rights community because we knew it would hurt both workers and the people we serve. Under the State’s ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out’ approach to discipline thousands of Personal Assistants were at risk – meaning, if you worked overtime 3 times you would be terminated under the State’s policy. All these workers did is refuse to abandon the people with disabilities they serve who have been unable to find additional caregivers. We believe as many as 2,000 Personal Assistants were facing termination as early as August 8 if we didn’t get the State to rescind this policy.

Over the past few months, we’ve taken to the streets with our disability allies to protest against the overtime caps; we’ve testified at legislative hearings against the overtime policy; we’ve held numerous press events all over the state to call attention to the bad impact of capping PA hours; we filed an unfair labor practice charge against the state, and we filed a class action grievance against the State.

The reason the State rescinded their policy is because they knew we were filing a class-action lawsuit on Wednesday morning to seek a restraining order to stop the State from enforcing the overtime policy.

Now, this is a temporary victory because the State is saying they still want to move forward with implementing the policy as is but they will go through a formal rule making process to do it. This means that there will be the chance for advocates, Personal Assistants, people with disabilities, and our union to submit public comment and concerns about the policy and get them on the record. We can also request that the State hold hearings and take testimony from people affected by the overtime policy. The State will also have to convince a group of state lawmakers on the rule making committee to approve their policy.

We have a lot more work to do to win an overtime policy that doesn’t hurt people with disabilities and workers, but in the meantime this means that Personal Assistants can go back to working their overtime hours without fear of discipline and you will be paid time and half for hours worked over 40 hours in one week.

Our union is going to fight to ensure that all occurrences that were given to PAs under this unfair overtime policy also get rescinded, and we will keep everyone posted on updates regarding those past disciplinary occurrences.

We do not know when the State will officially propose a new overtime policy, but it could be very soon. From when they announce the new policy, we will only have a few months to do everything we can to make sure that any final policy respects our rights and the rights of those we care for.
To get things started in that fight, we are planning an action in Chicago on Tuesday, August 9 at 2 p.m. to call on the Governor to rescind the overtime policy permanently and to eliminate disciplinary occurrences already given to thousands of PAs. If you can join, meet us at the Thompson Center (100 W. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL) at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 9. 

Since May 1 we have heard from a lot of Personal Assistants that they continued to work their overtime hours, but were not claiming those hours on their time sheets to avoid getting a disciplinary occurrence. Essentially, many PAs were working for free so that their consumer continued to get the care they need and so that they wouldn’t face possible termination under the overtime policy. This is completely unfair and now that the policy is rescinded our union is going to fight to get Personal Assistants back pay for the overtime hours they have worked since May 1 but didn’t claim on their time sheets.

We are encouraging Personal Assistants who have been working their overtime hours but not submitting those hours on their time sheets to avoid going over 40 to complete new time sheets with those hours worked to both their local DORS office and to our union at:

SEIU Healthcare Illinois

Attn: Home Care Division

2229 S. Halsted Street, Chicago, IL 60608

 

Rauner’s Veto & Next Steps in Our Fight for $15 & Our Fight to Protect Health Insurance and Training

We passed our bills in the Legislature this session to raise our pay to $15/ hour and protect our health insurance and training. Governor Bruce Rauner then had the choice to either sign and approve these bills, or veto them. He made the wrong choice and stood against us. The Governor used his veto power to deny us a living wage – it’s no surprise given all of his attacks at the bargaining table.

At the bargaining table Governor Rauner has spent the last year demanding that we accept a four-year wage freeze and give up our health insurance and training. These proposals are unacceptable and we fought back by moving our bill through the General Assembly to side-step the attacks we were seeing at the bargaining table, and we had overwhelming support in both the House and the Senate. State lawmakers passed our bill with wide margins, but that support wasn’t enough to stop the Governor’s veto.

But, this November lawmakers will have an opportunity to override Bruce Rauner’s veto. A veto-override requires 3/5 of the General Assembly to vote with us and against Governor Rauner.

Last summer when the governor tried to raise the DON score to kick thousands of people with disabilities and seniors out of home care programs, we launched a massive statewide campaign to get republicans on our side and it worked! That’s how we were able to stop the governor last year and we can do it again this year. It’s just going to take a lot more PAs and consumers in the streets and taking action.

In the last few weeks, Governor Rauner also vetoed our bills that would have protected the Community Care Program for seniors who need home care services, our bill for $15/hour for home care aides who work with seniors, and our bill to protect child care providers from attacks at the bargaining table. So, now is the time to start talking with our state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about what’s at stake with these vetoes. We especially need to talk with Republican lawmakers about the importance of standing up to Governor Rauner and siding with their constituents by overriding his vetoes.

Background Check Policy: What We Know & How We’re Fighting Back

The State implemented their background check policy without negotiating with our union like they should have. As a result, we have filed unfair labor practice charges and we continue to demand more information about what disqualifying crimes could result in PAs losing their jobs.

Our union completely understands the importance of people with disabilities having caregivers they can count on to have their best interests at heart, but it’s also important that the rights of consumers and PAs are protected. Consumers should be able to continue to choose who they hire, and consumers and PAs should be able to obtain waivers if they have something in their background that comes up in the background check. The state has given us very little information regarding what exactly the background checks will be screening for. This is very problematic and scary, especially if these background checks will ban PAs from the program.

As stated above, we have filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the state on the background check policy just as we did with the overtime policy, and we are also exploring another lawsuit because again the state did not follow the law when they created these new rules about background checks. We will keep everyone updated as new details emerge.

November Election is Opportunity Win Veto-Proof Super-Majority in General Assembly of Lawmakers Who Stand with US

Just because the governor vetoed our bills doesn’t mean this fight is over. We will be doing everything we can to keep the pressure on our legislators so they vote to override the governor’s veto this November, but we must also have a long-term strategy so we don’t find ourselves in this same place a year from now.

That’s why the elections this fall are so critical. State lawmakers who choose the governor over their constituents have no business being re-elected to represent us in Springfield. Imagine if we had a super majority of state lawmakers who stood with home care workers and consumers – that would mean we would automatically have the votes to override the governor’s vetoes and ensure a responsible budget gets passed as soon as possible that includes revenue and necessary funding for vital services.

We have a huge opportunity this November to elect more lawmakers who understand the importance of home care services and who are committed to raising standards for home care workers and consumers. With a veto-proof majority in the General Assembly and thousands of PAs and people with disabilities engaged and taking action, we have a plan that will stop this governor and win on our issues.

The reality is, Governor Rauner has no interest in settling a fair contract with us – we’ve been in negotiations for over a year now and he is still sticking to his unreasonable demands that would take us backwards by freezing our wages and eliminating our healthcare and our training. This year we saw that we do have the support in the state legislature to take on the Governor – we’re just a few votes shy of the super majority we need and we can fix that on Election Day if we do the work to get out the vote. Everything we do between now and 2018 must work towards ensuring Governor Rauner is a one-term governor.

Getting the message out to voters about all the terrible things this governor has done to the most vulnerable people in our state is critical – along with calling out the state lawmakers who are choosing the governor over their constituents. Bruce Rauner has deep pockets and is prepared to spend millions to re-elect the lawmakers he can control in Springfield. While we will never have the kind of money the governor has, but we have the people power and that can beat money every time.

To get involved in upcoming election work, call our Member Resource Center at 866-933-7348.