Chicago – SEIU Healthcare Illinois – representing 85,000 health care and child care workers throughout the state – launched the next phase of an aggressive campaign to stop devastating budget cuts yesterday, focusing their efforts on members of the Illinois House of Representatives who voted against an increase in the state’s income tax. The direct mail pieces, district canvassing and action events call on representatives to urge their colleagues and leaders to return to Springfield to stop dangerous cuts and pass needed revenue.

A round of mailings aimed at educating voters on what was at stake in the budget for seniors, children and working families went out in May. The new piece went to thousands of voters in districts where representatives failed to take action to stop devastating cuts. Copies can be found here.

In addition to mail, health care and child care workers held demonstrations with community advocates outside the district offices of Representatives Franks, Brosnahan, McCarthy and Zalewski Thursday, in the first of many protests planned for coming weeks.

“Instead of doing the responsible thing to protect vital services, our legislators did nothing—and let down millions of seniors, children and working families across Illinois,” said Keith Kelleher, president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana. “In the weeks ahead, we will educate voters about the consequences of their representative’s vote against a fair plan for new revenue. We’re calling on each of these legislators to get back to work in Springfield and fix their mess before home care, child care and other vital services are slashed.”

Billions of dollars in cuts to critical human services programs are set to take effect July 1st – leaving 80,000 working parents without child care, over 40,000 seniors and people with disabilities without home care and countless other families devastated by drastic cuts to the programs they depend on.

“Working parents across the state depend on child care assistance to keep their jobs and provide for their families,” explained Phyllis Aavang, a child care provider from Woodstock. “Unless Representative Franks and the rest of our elected officials fix this budget, tens of thousands of families will lose their child care and have to quit their jobs to take care of their kids. It’s a dangerous spiral that would push more families into poverty and hurt the wellbeing of the whole state.”

“Where do legislators like Representatives Brosnahan, McCarthy and Zalewski think seniors like me are going to go when we lose our home care?” asked 67-year-old Gloria Logan Brewer from Chicago. “I’ll be forced out of the home I love and into a nursing home I don’t need and can’t afford. These representatives need to come to their senses and tell their leaders that the better way to address this crisis is through a fair income tax increase, not a budget that will destroy families.”