Last Thursday, June 26, the /Circuit Court in Sangamon County spent several hours hearing motions from the pension funds' legal representatives. In this interview with Atty Aaron Maduff, who is representing the State University Annuitants Assn, we get an update on what happened, and how an agreement to NOT seek a Class-Action likely saved months of delay in getting the case to argument before the court.
Monday, June 30, 2014
SEIU Healthcare Illinois Issues Statement in Response to U.S. Supreme Court’s Ruling in Harris v. Quinn
CHICAGO--
Home care workers and consumers affirmed that they are ready to stand up for
quality home care in Illinois in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in
Harris v. Quinn today.
Flora Johnson, a home care provider for over 14-years who
cares for her son Kenneth, born with cerebral palsy, and serves as the
chairperson of the Executive Board of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, issued the
following statement:
“No court case can diminish the determination of the 25,000
Personal Assistants in the Illinois Home Services Program from our goals of
delivering quality care to people with disabilities and assuring that home care
jobs are quality jobs. The 30,000 people with disabilities in Illinois who
receive our services deserve a stable, dependable workforce to help them to live
independently in their homes, which is their primary desire.
“We are more determined than ever that joining together in
unions is the best way for home care workers to ensure the quality care for
which we strive. And we are prepared to work with the leadership of our state
and allies of the disability community to ensure that we continue to have a
strong voice for quality home care. History demonstrates that since we’ve had
our union, the quality of care, stability of the workforce – due to better
wages, benefits and cost effectiveness of the Home Services Program – have
improved dramatically.
“Our state will witness a drastic rise in the number of
people who will need home care services as baby boomers enter their senior years
in increasing numbers. It is in our best interest to be prepared for this
increased demand.
“We will not allow the tunnel vision focus of anti-worker
extremists like the Right to Work Foundation -- which brought this suit and
whose only concern is to destroy unions -- to diminish the quality of life for
people with disabilities who have benefited from a solid home care
program.”
Bruce Rauner Statement on the FY 2015 Budget that begins July 1
From the Rauner Campaign, June 30, 2014
“Pat
Quinn broke his promise on taxes and his only goal is to permanently take more
money out of every hard-working Illinoisans’ paycheck – and this broken budget
is the result. In five years of Quinn budgets, we’ve seen higher taxes and
decimated education funding, and the results have been the highest unemployment
in the Midwest and too many failing schools. We need to fundamentally shake up
the way Springfield does business and enact structural reforms to fix our broken
state government.”
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House Republican Leader, Jim Durkin on the Supreme Court Decision on Quinn v Harris
STATEMENT BY HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER, JIM DURKIN
“I applaud the United States Supreme Court's decision today by siding with Illinoisans Pam and Josh Harris by ruling that a home is not a union shop and that the sensitive decisions regarding the care for a disabled loved one needs to remain with the caregiver and in the home.
In June of 2009, the Governor issued Executive Order 15 which allows for collective bargaining in the home based support services provided, for the most part, by parents and family members of the disabled. Josh Harris suffers from Rubenstein-Taybi syndrome and other physical and mental disabilities. Josh's mother Pam Harris, is his caregiver. At that time, Pam and Josh lived a few blocks from me and she reached out to me expressing her grave concerns with the Executive Order 15 and how its full implementation would affect her son. I spent an afternoon with her and Josh and witnessed first-hand the daily care she provides her son. I soon introduced HR 720 which called upon the Governor to withdraw EO 15. Despite Pam's testimony with Josh present, the resolution failed in the Democrat controlled State Government Administration committee. This past year I reintroduced the Resolution.
Pam Harris speaks for the thousands of parents and family members who serve as caregivers. No one other than Pam Harris knows what’s best for Josh and the United States Supreme Court agrees.
Rauner Campaign Launches New Effort to Win Over Hispanic Voters
FROM THE AP...
CHICAGO — Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner has launched a coalition of supporters from the Latino community, a group that traditionally shows Democratic support.
Rauner and running mate Evelyn Sanguinetti announced Amigos de Rauner-Sanguinetti on Sunday afternoon at a Mexican restaurant on the city's Southwest Side. The campaign released a list of coalition members. It includes business leaders, bankers, attorneys, religious leaders and a Winnebago County board member.
Sanguinetti is the daughter of immigrants from Cuba and Ecuador.
Rauner said at the Sunday event that he wants to help Hispanic families — many of whom, he says, own small businesses — and who have been hurt by what he called high taxes and unreasonable government regulations while Quinn has been governor.
The coalition includes a Spanish-language website.
Statement from Carole Brite President & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois on "Hobby Lobby" Ruling
U.S. Supreme Court Hobby Lobby & Conestoga Woods
Ruling
Chicago — (Date) All women deserve the right to the health care they need. We know first-hand how important it is for women to receive the method of birth control that works for them without hurdles or barriers. That’s why Planned Parenthood fought so hard for the birth control benefit in the first place and why we’re focused on making sure that women have access to the method of birth control that’s best for them, without cost or other hurdles standing in the way.
Today American families were served a severe blow to their right to family planning when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods even though they did stipulate that the holding is limited to small “closely-held” corporations. The corporations in this lawsuit hold an extreme view, and unfortunately there are some politicians who want to go even farther — getting rid of the birth control benefit entirely. Bosses of private, for-profit businesses should not be able to interfere in women's health decisions, and neither should the politicians who want to roll back the birth control benefit entirely, taking away insurance coverage that millions of women benefit from.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of these corporations, we applaud the Illinois General Assembly for having the foresight to pass the Birth Control Referendum. We are fortunate to live in a state that protects women’s rights to contraceptives. This referendum will help protect and strengthen the law we already have in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The non-binding referendum will appear on the November ballot as this question:
Shall any health insurance plan in Illinois that
provides prescription drug coverage be required to include prescription birth
control as part of that coverage?
Planned Parenthood of Illinois believes that preventive care, including birth control, is basic healthcare for women. Virtually all American women between the ages of 15 and 44 who are sexually active have used birth control at some time. Regardless of the size of the corporation, we will not let this ruling deter us from continuing to provide essential healthcare services to the more than 60,000 women, men, and teens across Illinois that entrust their basic health care rights to us — however small or large the corporation they work for.
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Catholic Conference of Illinois "Elated" with Supreme Court Ruling in "Hobby Lobby" Case
CHICAGO -- The U.S Supreme Court today issued a 5-4 ruling
in favor of the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties lawsuits against the
mandate handed down by the federal Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)requiring all employers to offer insurance coverage of abortion-inducing
drugs, contraceptives, and sterilizations.
Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic
Conference of Illinois, issued the following statement on the
ruling:
We are elated the U.S. Supreme Court recognizes and affirms
the importance of religious freedom in the practice of business. Hobby Lobby and
Conestoga Wood Specialties have scored an important victory regarding religious
conscience that we hope portends a triumph for religious-based and nonprofit
employers pursuing similar lawsuits.
All of these cases challenge the federal mandate requiring
insurance coverage of such objectionable services as abortion-inducing drugs,
contraceptives and sterilizations. But the issue at hand goes far beyond birth
control, which today’s ruling addresses.
The issue strikes at the heart of the first 16 words of the
First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. …”
As we approach the Fourth of July and the celebration of our
country’s independence, we in the Catholic Church observe our third annual
“Fortnight for Freedom” from July 21-July 4, in recognition of America’s first
freedom – religious freedom. We breathe a sigh of relief that it has been
affirmed.
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