Presence Health pays women of color poverty wages and uses anti-union tactics against them

Chicago – Today, SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas (SEIU HCIIMK) calls on the Chicago City Council to oppose giving $5.5 million in city TIF funds to Presence Health.  SEIU HCIIMK President Greg Kelley wrote a letter to city aldermen explaining the union’s opposition.
See the full letter below.
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Dear Alderman,
I write to urge you to vote against providing millions in TIF funds to Presence Health. Presence Health pays women of color poverty wages and uses anti-union tactics against them. Presence also continues to ignore the healthcare deserts of the city’s south and west sides.
Our organizers have spoken to workers at Presence Health who make under $13 an hour despite nearly 20 years of experience.  Workers who clean hospital rooms protect against the spread of infection. Workers who stock the emergency room ensure the tools are there when they’re needed to save lives. These workers – many of whom are women of color – are critical to patient health and safety and yet Presence Health won’t pay them a living wage.
Presence Health has engaged in shameful anti-union activities while its workers attempt to organize, which keeps wages low and silences workers’ voices. They have encouraged workers to visit anti-union websites that advocate for so-called “Right to Work” policies. And they have circulated anti-union literature to workers to discourage unionization. Workers rights are under attack from the Trump and Rauner administrations. This is exactly the kind of behavior that Chicago as a “Trump-Free Zone” must stand firmly against.
Voting for the Presence Health TIF funding is an endorsement of Presence Health’s pro-poverty, anti-union, and anti-affordable healthcare policies that harm women of color. On behalf of the over 90,000 workers of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, & Kansas, I urge a no vote.
-Greg Kelley
President

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RELATED:
HCII VP of Hospitals and Health Systems, Anne Igoe, speaks at a press conference opposing TIF funding for Presence Health