SEIU Healthcare Illinois to Lawmakers: Stop the Cuts!
Since the end of the legislative session in Springfield, SEIU Healthcare Illinois, along with our coalition partners in the Campaign for Illinois’ Future, have ramped up our efforts to demand that lawmakers approve a fair budget for Illinois families.
When lawmakers left Springfield at the end of May, they failed to pass a budget that funds vital human services like home and child care. As a result, billions of dollars in cuts to critical human services programs are set to take effect July 1. These cuts will leave 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.
To hold our elected officials accountability and pressure them to do the right thing by stopping these cuts and voting for a fair income tax increase, we’ve turned up the heat on those that let us down.
We’ve spearheaded over 25 protests and rallies at the offices of lawmakers who voted against the fair tax increase we need to prevent devastating cuts to our programs. These efforts have gotten the attention of lawmakers and the media across the state:
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When child care provider Tina Carrol joined protests outside of the offices of Chicago Representatives John Fritchey, Deb Mell, John D’Amico and Joseph Lyons, she caught the attention of ABC 7 news who ran a
feature story about her.
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Home care workers like
Sondra Ramos were recognized for rallying at the offices of Representatives Jack Franks in Woodstock, Tom Holbrook in Belleville, and Jay Hoffman in Collinsville. Read more about the events in
Woodstock and
Belleville.
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And child care providers like Telisa Richards were noticed by their legislators and local reporters while demonstrating at the offices of Representatives Raymond Poe and Rich Brauer in Springfield and Decatur.
On June 23, along with our allies in the Campaign for Illinois’ Future, 2300 of us marched to the State Capitol in Springfield in a demonstration that made headlines across the state and proved to our elected officials that we will not stand for a budget that will hurt our jobs, the people we care for and our families.
But that’s not all. In the past 3 weeks, SEIU Healthcare Illinois members and our Campaign for Illinois’ Future allies have made over 3,000 phone calls to our legislators to demand a fair tax increase to fund essential programs like home and child care. Another 521 of us have sent letters to our state lawmakers demanding that they stand up for us by protecting our programs.
SEIU Healthcare Illinois members will continue our fight in Springfield in the coming week to pressure lawmakers to get some guts and stop the cuts.