SPRINGFIELD-- Members and leaders of SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana – a 90,000-member union of health care and child care workers – called on members of the General Assembly today to fund vital services for Illinois’ working families.

Following a march to the Capitol, members and leaders urged legislators not to forget about the state’s most vulnerable in the fiscal year 2009 budget. In the midst of an economic downturn, workers stressed the need for legislators to work together to prioritize full funding of the vital services hundreds of thousands of Illinois families rely on.

“The quality of our health care system depends on workers like us. Too many workers are leaving the field for jobs with higher wages and better benefits,” said Nellie Logan, a home care worker from Springfield, Illinois. “Our elected officials have the power to make quality care for working families a budget priority.”

Members of the General Assembly were asked by SEIU members to prioritize working families in the budget by funding all direct care services, expanding the child care program and honoring their prior commitment to the state’s health care and child care workers, as mandated by collective bargaining agreement or public law. Members pressed their representatives to:  

•    Ensure that home care workers get living wages and access to health care
•    Invest in the state’s child care providers through rate increases, a health insurance fund and the continued funding
      of training incentives
•    Make child care more affordable for working families and lower parent co-pays
•    Pass long overdue cost of living increases for social service workers
•    Fully fund nursing home initiatives to raise wages and fund health care for direct care workers
•    Support and fund legislation that would make health care more affordable and accessible for all families

“Quality care for working families is at risk without full funding in the budget for health care and child care programs,” described Lanell Dorsey, a child care provider from Chicago, Illinois. “The state has to invest in the system if families are going to get the care they need.”

In addition to fully funding health care programs, members called on legislators to address the state’s fiscal crisis by exploring new revenue sources. SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana supports SB2288 as a means of raising the revenue needed to fund current programs and expand services vital to working families.