CHICAGO Blagojevich signs bill for home-care workers After a rally of support in the lobby of the Thompson Center Tuesday, members of a state employees union watched as Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a labor bill granting collective bargaining rights to 20,000 state employed home care workers. "Home care workers do some of the toughest work for quite minimal pay," said Abby Ottenhoff, spokeswoman for the governor. "The governor believes that it was not only right but necessary to make sure that as people who contract directly with the state, that they are granted the right to negotiate with the state for their wages." House Bill 2221 was signed one year after seven home care workers were arrested in the same building during a protest against budget cuts that prohibited the kind of pay raises now made possible by the bill. Medill News Service
