Following the devastating two-year budget impasse, the Illinois General Assembly finally approved a new state budget after voting to override Governor Rauner’s veto.

So much damage has already been done, but we are finally getting our state back on track. Home care aides and seniors have a lot to celebrate in this budget and it’s thanks to the tireless work of our members and allies throughout the impasse that we have these victories today:

• We protected the Community Care Program from Governor Rauner’s plans to force 36,000 seniors into a new, untested program through a $120 million cut. Rauner’s plan would have replaced home care aides with uber drivers, meal vouchers, and a revolving door of strangers from laundry and housekeeping services. We have more work to do to stop Rauner’s attacks on our seniors for good, but this is great news in our fight to protect critical home care services for the elderly and to protect our jobs.
• We won raises of at least $.72/hr. effective August 5^th, 2017 for ALL ILLINOIS HOME CARE AIDES! This increase impacts all Illinois home care aides in the Community Care Program, no matter where you live or work. Many workers in the City of Chicago just saw a wage increase on July 1st, 2017 due to the City minimum wage increase that just went up to $11/hour. Any increase you received on July 1st, 2017 is a down-payment toward your full $.72 / hour raise. Those who were not impacted by the Chicago minimum wage increase (those who live and work outside of Chicago, or those in Chicago who already earned over the minimum wage), will receive a $.72/hour raise. We also won an increase to $1.77/ hour to protect our health insurance.

We will be sitting down for negotiations with our agencies to hold them accountable and ensure we get our raises, and determine when those raises will appear on our checks. Elections for bargaining team members are underway statewide for each union agency and negotiations will start up in August.

If you have any questions about our raises, please call our Member Resource Center at 866-933-7348.