All Out to NYC City Hall on October 25!

Solidarity Rally with Our Homecare Members

1199SEIU members from Long Island to the Hudson Valley are mobilizing for a rally on October 25 at City Hall in Manhattan to support tens of thousands of homecare sisters and brothers who are facing loss of healthcare benefits for their children and spouses.

The call for an all-out mobilization of union members follows an emergency meeting of the union staff and a Joint Delegates Assembly for downstate New York. The threat of loss of benefits to 1199SEIU homecare members means that the healthcare crisis gripping the nation has come home of the largest healthcare union local in North America. The fight to secure universal healthcare will be set back if we cannot secure continued benefits for our own members.

Homecare workers will lose their benefits effective November 5th, if New York State does not meet its responsibility in providing the necessary resources to continue their healthcare coverage. The loss of coverage will mean that an estimated 20,000 children and 17,000 spouses will no longer be insured.

Moreover, the current propose state shortfall in paying for health insurance for these low-income workers, will me that the individual workers will also have co-pays ranging from $20 to $75. Most homecare workers earn less than $10 an hour.

Every year homecare workers have to fight to get healthcare coverage. This past spring our homecare members participated in a lobby day in Albany that eventually restored most of the funding for their full family coverage. But that victory was short lived because funding thought to be allocated for healthcare has now been redistributed causing a critical shortfall in benefit fund dollars.

The only way to turn this tide around is to send a strong message to Albany that 1199SEIU members--and our allies and other healthcare advocates--won't stand for this. Homecare workers deserve to get the healthcare they need.

These workers are depending on us to help save their healthcare. Join us on October 25th--New York City Hall at 5 pm. And bring your co-workers, family members and friends.