Singles Out Low-Income Workforce, Destabilizes Families Across Illinois as Part of Union-Busting Payback

CHICAGO-Following is the statement of SEIU Healthcare Illinois Vice President Brynn Seibert following the breaking news that Bruce Rauner’s administration is refusing payments to 28,000 state child care providers for work performed in July, while processing payments for other state workers.

These workers will begin missing paychecks in mere days.

“It is self-serving cruelty that the Rauner administration is singling out for retribution 28,000 workers—most of them poor, most of them African-American, most of them women—as he seeks to enact his union-busting agenda.

“Rauner already has begun a back-door dismantling of the successful Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which research shows generates economic activity, keeps tax dollars in the state and grows a robust workforce.

“Along with refusing pay to 28,000 workers, CCAP payments are being withheld from some 3,000 child care centers around Illinois that support 30,000 workers, putting their employment in jeopardy as well.

“By denying pay to skilled and trained workers who care for Illinois children, Rauner is ensuring that IN JUST DAYS child care centers will close, working families will be destabilized as they are forced to choose between work and the care for their kids, and children themselves will be placed in harm’s way.

“This disruption is totally avoidable and is part of Rauner’s political vendetta against unions and  those workers speaking out about his protection of big corporations, banks and the super-wealthy at all and any cost.”