More than 35,000 home care workers are united in SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana. Every day, we provide essential care that helps keep tens of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities healthy and in their homes and communities.
SEIU Healthcare members work as Personal Assistants in the Illinois Department of Human Services/Office of Rehabilitation Services, and as home care aides at agencies across Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. Since 1983—when home care was a minimum-wage job, with no benefits–home care workers have fought for and won living wages and healthcare for home care workers, protected quality home care for seniors and people with disabilities from state budget cuts, and to expand home care to more consumers.
Every day, more home health aides in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri are joining the growing movement of caregivers for quality home care for all consumers, and living wages, healthcare and respect for the home care workforce.
More than 1,200 health care, home care, and child care providers traveled to Springfield on May 15 to speak out against massive budget cuts that threaten Illinois’ working families, seniors, and people with disabilities. Members delivered more than 12,000 postcards from Illinois residents against these cuts to Governor Pat Quinn’s office.
Member leaders called on our legislature to pass a fair tax.
“Each and every one of us got on a bus early this morning to come here and make sure our voices are heard. Our presence here today reaffirms our values – doing what’s right for seniors, people with disabilities, kids and working parents, providing quality care for the people of Illinois, and fighting for fairness in our communities,” said child care provider Faith Davis.
In recent weeks, child care providers have been fighting an immediate budget shortfall that could leave them without pay till June, threatening to shut down the Illinois child care system that working parents depend on. But proposed cuts to next year’s budget would affect our entire membership, with cuts to home care, Medicare, and Medicaid putting thousands of people who use home care, nursing homes, and community hospitals in danger.
We delivered more than 12,000 postcards to Gov. Pat Quinn, from Illinois residents who oppose budget cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, child care, and home care.
“I’ve worked at Mt. Sinai for 13 years and have been a patient for 25 years. If these budget cuts go through, it will be drastic for our community. Our state doesn’t have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem,” said Sansaree Brinson, a Chicago hospital worker. Throughout the day, members called on legislators to support a fair tax system in Illinois that puts community resources before tax breaks for rich corporations.
Home care workers and consumers in Springfield on Wednesday
This week in six cities across the state, people with disabilities, home care workers, and disability rights advocates united to denounce proposed cuts to home care services. In Springfield, Rockford, Marion, Peoria, Chicago, and East St. Louis workers and consumers held protests outside of state offices, DRS offices, and at the Thompson Center in Chicago calling on Governor Quinn to stop cuts to home care and invest in good jobs for home care workers. Activists collected signatures on letters that were faxed to Governor Quinn and brandished signs reminding onlookers that ‘there’s no place like home.’
As we head into Mother’s Day weekend, mothers who rely on home care like Pat Whitman in Rockford also took the opportunity to speak out about the fact that home care services allow her to remain living in her home, surrounded by family and
East St. Louis
loved ones. “My home care worker allows me to stay in my community and with my family, where I want to be. Cuts to home care services would not only end the independence I enjoy right now, but would also cut me off from my children because I’d be forced into institutional care. These cuts are wrong for Illinois – the services people like me receive are critical to our lives,” Whitman said.
Rockford home care worker Heather Lindstrom also shared her perspective as a mother who relies on her job through the Home ServicesProgram to support her family. “My consumer relies on me for a lot and I take pride in the quality care I provide for her. It’s getting harder and harder to get her everything she needs in the hours I’m allowed to work and talk about cuts would mean her hours would be slashed even further, and she won’t get the care she needs. It would also make it much harder for me to support my family with even lower take home pay,” said Lindstrom. “We need to invest in quality home care services and jobs.”
Check out the video below from the action at the JR Thompson Center in Chicago:
Home care workers and consumers are fighting back proposed cuts to maintain access to quality home care.
This week hundreds of home care workers, seniors, and people with disabilities took to the Capitol to fight back proposed cuts to home care funding. Supporters rode buses in from around the state and kicked off the day with a rally outside the statehouse, before heading in to talk with lawmakers face to face about the devastating effects the proposed cuts would have on seniors and people with disabilities who count on home care workers to help them continue living independently at home.
Governor Quinn has proposed $150 million in service and eligibility cuts to the Community Care Program that seniors rely on. These cuts would impact up to 8,000 new seniors that will not be able to access the program and would mean fewer hours of care for seniors who are already enrolled.
In addition, the Governor’s proposed budget includes huge cuts to the DHS-DRS Home Services Program that provides access to home care services for people with disabilities in Illinois. The proposed $60.5 million in service and eligibility cuts would kick thousands of people with disabilities out of the program, prevent thousands from entering and receiving the services they need, and drastically reduce services for over 14,000 consumers.
Personal Assistants are busy negotiating a strong new contract with the state right now, while fighting back budget cuts that could threaten our jobs and our consumer’s independence.
Our Statewide Bargaining Committee
We decided our top priorities for this contract were:
Protect our jobs and quality care for our consumers
Improve our wages
Protect our healthcare and training funds
It’s also important to fight back against Medicaid cuts in DC, create a fair tax system in Illinois so that home care is properly funded, and to support people with disabilities living in our communities. There’s a lot at stake and protecting what we’ve already fought hard to win will be a challenge in itself, but winning a strong contract is paramount to the continuation of quality care for our consumers.
Our last two contracts showed the strength we have when we stick together; we achieved incredible gains like significant raises, access to healthcare for the first time ever, and funds for a training program that helps us deliver better quality care to our consumers.
But this fight is unlike any other we’ve faced and it’s going to take all of us and our consumers to win. We’re up against our state’s struggling economy and greedy corporations that want more tax breaks on the backs of working families. That’s why PAs and consumers are stepping up around the state and taking action to protect our program and make sure the rich pay their fair share so Personal Assistants and consumers aren’t punished with devastating budget cuts.
Home Care before Corporate Welfare!
“We are tired of handouts to greedy banks and corporations that wrecked our economy coming before quality home care in Illinois. This fight is bigger than a strong contract; it’s about changing our state’s priorities,” said Sharon Walker, a Personal Assistant in Chicago.
Recently, thousands of PAs got on an important call with home care workers across the state to share ideas and questions about our fight ahead to stop budget cuts. Over 3,000 of us committed to taking action during this interactive conversation. Then, hundreds of consumers and PAs converged in Springfield to lobby our lawmakers and rally in support of home care funding protection.
In communities across the state, members are also meeting locally with our lawmakers to make the case for the vital
'Walk a Day in Our Shoes' - State Senate Candidate Steve Stadelman, Personal Assistant Katrina Nathans, and consumer Mildred Davis
services we provide. In Springfield, Carbondale, Rockford, and Metro East, Personal Assistants and consumers invited local lawmakers and candidates to ‘walk a day in our shoes.’ Our senators, representatives, and political candidates heard firsthand why the home care program must be protected and the impact that cuts would have on our communities. Members are also taking our message to the public by holding press conferences and joining actions to call on the richest of the rich to pay their fair share so the state can continue investment in vital human service programs like home care.
This fight is far from over and we need everyone to get involved if we’re going to win! Call the SEIU Member Resource Center at 866-933-7348 to learn how you can make your voice heard!
Hundreds of Personal Assistants and Consumers Turned Out for Lobby Day Feb. 28
A statement from SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana President Keith Kelleher:
This month, I was honored to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, for civil rights, immigrants’ rights, and justice. Along with our brothers and sisters in Alabama and supporters from across the country, we marched to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the historic 1965 march that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act and so many other revolutionary civil rights laws passed in the heyday of the movement.
Keith and members getting ready to march
Our union was well-represented in Selma: we had homecare workers from southern Illinois and Chicago, child care providers from the south suburbs, and healthcare workers from our hospitals and nursing homes marching together. Black, white and brown, we marched united against new racist, discriminatory laws in Alabama aimed at recent immigrants as well as voter suppression laws which were written only to prevent African-Americans and other low and moderate income people from exercising their right to vote.
National leaders like civil rights pioneer Dick Gregory, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Rev. Al Sharpton joined us on the march, as well as SEIU’s own officers: Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice-President Gerry Hudson, and President Mary Kay Henry.
Our path honored the heroes of the past as well as the freedom fighters of today. We began at the Memorial for Viola Liuzzo [link], a white volunteer transporting civil rights marchers on the original 1965 march. The KKK forced her car off the road and killed her with a shotgun. Her passenger, an African-American marcher, survived.
We were privileged to be introduced to one of the original marchers. At more than 100 years old, she marched alongside us in her wheelchair—what an inspiration!
I was proud of the endurance and strength of our members, several of whom were well into their 50′s, 60′s and even 70’s. They marched several miles a day, for days in a row, without complaint. It reminded me of the marcher during the historic 1956 Montgomery bus boycott who said of her effort, “My feet may be hurting, but my soul is rested.”
Watch our members’ moving account of our trip.
Even though we were in the heart of the Deep South, fighting new racist anti-immigrant legislation and attacks on the rights of people of color and all low- and moderate-income Americans to vote, we felt hopeful. There we were, hundreds of us, black, brown, Asian, and white; senior citizens and young people; members of unions, community organizations, and immigrant rights groups; united and fighting back against racist, anti-immigrant and discriminatory voting laws and right-to-work-for-less laws [link] that threaten our rights on the job . We were being escorted by Alabama state troopers: the same authorities who might have harassed and beaten us 50 years ago were now protecting us.
We know have a lot of work ahead of us. We have to be vigilant in preventing racist and regressive laws[link to anti hb56 site] from unraveling the hard-won advancements that our brothers and sisters died for and keep fighting for fairness and equality in our jobs, communities, cities and state capitols.
But little by little, things are truly changing for the better. Together, we’re marching forward to a better world for all of us.
Our members have been all over the media lately as we fight to protect Illinois’ vital home care and child care programs, while educating residents and lawmakers about the fair tax system that will allow us to keep funding them. See the news coverage we’re getting as the fair tax movement gains momentum!
Missouri home care workers recently traveled to Jefferson City to meet with our senators and representatives about the importance of the services we provide and the need to protect home care funding for people with disabilities. Lawmakers in the House and Senate are already threatening to cut our program, and we know the devastating effects that would have on us and our consumers so we’re fighting back in the capitol.
“Attending lobby days and other events in support of home care funding are so important because some of our consumers can’t make the trip themselves and their voices must be heard. I care for my aunt and would never want to see her end up in a nursing home because she can no longer get the services she needs to remain in her home,” explained home care worker Mattie Bryant from Pagedale, MO.
Cuts not only threaten our livelihoods, but also the independence of our consumers. When home care isn’t fully funded it means less access to quality care for consumers, loss of their freedom and dignity, and even unwanted shifts to more costly institutional care. For home care workers like us, cuts would mean loss of hours and pay, or even our jobs.
“Lawmakers in Jefferson City need to hear from us if we want to save our jobs and protect the dignity of our consumers. We know that when home care workers stand up together for what’s right, we win. We were successful last year in protecting our programs, but this year is going to be an even harder fight so every home care worker needs to get involved and join us at events like lobby day,” said Elinor Simmons, home care worker from St. Louis.
This legislative session there’s a lot at stake in Missouri and that’s why we will continue to get our message out in Jefferson City and in our local communities. Lawmakers must pass a budget that protects our jobs, protects services for people with disabilities, and makes the rich pay their fair share so funds for services like home care aren’t robbed from those who need them most.
Hundreds of home care workers and consumers took the Capitol by storm on Tuesday, visiting lawmakers and explaining the impact the proposed budget would have on home care services for seniors and people with disabilities. The lobby day was then followed by a rally where our speakers called for an end to corporate handouts that rob funds from those who need it most.
“Today, we want our lawmakers to know that the $216 million tax break that they doled out to CME Group could have provided 37,000 of our seniors and people with disabilities home care services,” exclaimed rally emcee Tonya Smith, a home care worker from Addus.
Several consumers shared their personal stories with the crowd of over 500, pointing out that without the help they get from their home care worker they may not be able to continue living the independent lives they want to live.
Personal Assistant Maria Hernandez and consumer Crisstian Hernandez
“I’m a full-time student right now studying to be a math teacher one day,” said Crisstian Hernandez, a home care consumer from Posen, IL. “Without this program, I would not be able to attend school and pursue my dream. Our state seems to have its priorities misplaced when it comes to choosing the winners and losers during tough economic times.”
Several political allies stopped by to voice their support for home care funding as well. State Senator Gary Forby from the southernmost region of the state, State Representative Al Riley from the South Suburbs of Chicago, and Chicago’s West Side State Representative Derrick Smith all reaffirmed their unwavering support for home care services.
“I want you all to know that my mother receives the services you provide and my sister is the one who provides it for her, so I get it,” said Representative Smith, over cheers from the crowd.
While energy was high in the rotunda, the realities of the budget proposals are somber. The Governor’s proposed cuts would mean loss of access for many to the critical services we provide and fewer hours for those already enrolled in the program. These cuts could leave many of our consumers with no choice but to transition to nursing home care, swallowing more state resources and sending us to the unemployment line.
Bonita Rodriguez, Home Care Worker and Member Intern
“Home care workers like me are losing hours, and when I lose my hours that means seniors are losing their services,” said Bonita Rodriguez, a home care worker who works with seniors. “Without my service, my senior probably wouldn’t eat, probably wouldn’t get out of bed, and probably wouldn’t be clean. Budget cuts are targeting seniors and people like me so the rich can get their tax breaks. Well we’re here to fight back and we’ll keep coming back until lawmakers get the message!”
Home care consumers and workers returned home after the rally energized to keep the pressure on back in our communities and make sure quality care and quality jobs are protected in the budget. Cuts to home care are only initial proposals at this point, but we stand ready to activate and mobilize if these plans move forward. Stay tuned for more updates and ways to get involved.
Visit our photostream to view more photos from the lobby day and rally.
This primary season, candidates and lawmakers seeking re-election are getting hands-on experience learning the role home care programs play in the lives of seniors and people with disabilities in Illinois. Several political hopefuls agreed to participate in ‘Walk a Day in Our Shoes’ events around the state, where they spend a few hours with a local Personal Assistant and consumer in order to fully understand the vital need for home care services.
Personal Assistant Haley Stokes, Consumer Jaiden Harriott, and State Senate Candidate Marla Wilson
“Making sure our lawmakers understand what’s at stake is paramount to protecting our jobs and quality care,” said Haley Stokes, a Personal Assistant in Rockford. “Connecting candidates with the consumers we serve and the work we do ensures that our voices are heard and our message gets out.”
During these events, candidates perform services for home care consumers and get a chance to hear personal stories about the devastating impact cuts to the program would have on that individual consumer, their families, and their communities. In addition, Personal Assistants demonstrate their commitment to providing quality care and explain how cuts would hurt them as well, in the form of fewer hours to work and maybe even a loss of employment.
In Springfield, Personal Assistant Kevin Holmes and his consumer Ed Vorties hosted state representative candidate Sue Scherer. Scherer performed the services Holmes normally would for Mr. Vorties, like meal preparation and cleaning around the house.
“I was in a nursing home at one point and I am not interested in going back,” Mr. Vorties explained to Scherer. “I want to remain in my own home and in my community where I contribute by serving as an Assistant Minister at my church and volunteering my time as a Sunday school teacher. Cuts to home care funding would mean a loss of independence for me and a loss to my community as well.”
“Nursing homes can be an important resource for people who need round-the-clock care,” added Holmes, “but people deserve to have a choice if they want to remain in their own homes and can do so with some assistance from a personal assistant like me. The idea of taking that choice
Personal Assistant Kevin Holmes, Consumer Ed Vorties, and State Rep. Candidate Sue Scherer
away from someone like Mr. Vorties is wrong, and that’s why we want to make sure our lawmakers understand that cuts to home care will have devastating effects.”
Sue Scherer got the message and pledged to fight hard in Springfield to protect home care funding if elected. Check out Channel 3’s coverage of the event here.
In Rockford, three candidates vying for a state senate seat also took part in these events. Candidates Dan Lewandowski, Steve Stadelman, and Marla Wilson each joined local home care workers and consumers from Rockford, seeing firsthand how home care services support people with disabilities in their community. In the southwestern region of the state, home care consumer Sandretta Howard and her Personal Assistant Silda Chapple will host State Senator James Clayborne. Finally, State Senator Gary Forby will participate in March with a local Carbondale consumer and home care worker. These statewide activities are one more way Personal Assistants and consumers are fighting back against budget cuts and helping to protect the future of the DORS program.
Child care, home care, nursing home, and hospital workers organized a candlelight vigil against gun violence in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood this month, highlighting a need for greater job opportunities to keep young people away from gangs.
Members of SEIU and the Chatham neighborhood displayed flyers about the connections between gun violence and a lack of economic opportunity in the community.
Members held the vigil on the site of a tragic shooting. On Nov. 5th, 2011, three innocent bystanders, two men and one woman, all in their 20s, were killed in the parking lot of Church’s Chicken and A Piece of Cake bakery on 87th and South King Drive. The woman who was slain was picking up a birthday cake for her two-year-old daughter. No one has been charged in the shooting.
Several residents of the 6th Ward who have been shot, or whose loved ones have been shot, spoke about the physical and psychological pain of dealing with shootings in their neighborhoods. Home care worker Cynthia Youngblood, who also works part-time for Chicago Public Schools helping special needs children, almost lost her 17-year-old daughter when she was shot twice by random gunfire last June. Her daughter Diamond was hospitalized for 15 days and still needs crutches. Seven months later, Cynthia still has to take significant time off work, unpaid, in order to take her daughter to physical rehabilitation, counseling and medical visits.
“Every time I take my daughter to physical rehab or counseling it means I’m not able to work. We struggle to get by. Those two bullets did a lot of damage to my daughter and to our family,” said Youngblood. “Why are we dealing with random gunfire in our neighborhoods? We need to build-up our communities by creating jobs, not tearing our neighborhoods apart,” Youngblood said.
6th ward alderman Roderick Sawyer came out to support our anti-violence initiative.
Child care worker Jacqueline Smith was shot in the back in September 2008 in the Gresham neighborhood. Jacqueline, who had just watched the four young children that she was caring for leave her home, was struck by a stray bullet that almost punctured her lung. Three other bullets struck the outside of her house but the children weren’t injured. Jacqueline eventually moved her child care service to the 6th Ward, thinking it would be a safer and quieter place to continue her business, but she worries that the community where she wanted to restart her life is becoming more and more dangerous.
“Let’s be honest, we have too many young men who don’t have jobs and don’t see any way that they can contribute their lives towards a future. We simply can’t allow our young people to slip through the cracks because they can’t find meaningful work,” said Smith, who could not attend the vigil but offered a statement. “If we want to reduce violence, we have to start by giving people a purpose and a job with a livable wage.”
The candlelight ceremony will be the first of many opportunities for members, residents and community partners to become involved in actions against neighborhood violence and the lack of job opportunities that allows it to flourish. Members are creating a community-based coalition in the 6th Ward to advocate for solutions, aiming to mobilize union members and to partner with interfaith groups and churches, non-profit organizations, small businesses, and civic leaders to create jobs, improve schools, reduce home foreclosures, prevent violence, and encourage economic development and investment in the 6th Ward.
Watch Alderman Sawyer and Cynthia and Diamond Youngblood address gun violence in their community:
