ms. benjamin, direct care for workers. you talk a little bit about what benefits you and your colleagues have been able to gain by membership of the union. i wanto to drill down a little bit on what the impact of receiving better pay and benefits means not only for the workforce but also for the people you serve in a that role. in new hampshire it's estimated that 70-80% of paid hands-on care for older adults and individuals who experience disabilities is provided by direct care workers, including personal care aide come , home h aides and nursing assistants. asan the demand for direct care workers is expected to increase, 49%, 49%, between now and 2022 further exacerbated a workforce shortage that already exist in many communities across my state and across the country. ms. benjamin, from your own experience what do you believe are contributing factors to the shortage of home healthcare workers? and you believe that the actions taken to dismantle worker protections will exacerbate the shortage? >> i would say the reason w

ms. benjamin, please proceed. >> good afternoon. i'm a home care worker from chicago's west side. i'm also a proud member of seiu, healthcare illinois. senator whitehouse, i want to thank you forgiving me the opportunity to allow me to let you know why the importance of having a union means to working people like myself. and why the efforts to divide us and destroy unions by corporate powerful interest that hurt our country. in our union, we have a saying as home care workers, envisible no more. and that's because before that, brave home care workers back in the late '80s organize the home care workers and only making as little as an dollar an hour. no one was recognized basically how hard of the work that it is and demanding that it is. basically give us real wages. and nobody as more home care workers have joined continue to out for better wages, training, and other improvements for the work that we love. alone, we are invisible. but together, we're unstoppable. we provide care for seniors and people with disabilities to live in a home. i didn't choose this profession, it chose

ms. benjamin. you talked about what benefits you and your colleagues have been able to gain by the membership of the union. i want to drill down a little bit to what the impact means not only for the workforce but also for the people that you served in that role. in new hampshire it is estimated 70 to 80% of the page hands-on care for the adults and individuals have experienced disabilities is provided by the direct care workers including personal aides and nursing assistants and the demand for the workers is expected to increase 49% between now and 2022 further exacerbating the workforce shortage that already exists in many communities across my state and across the country. from your own experience what do you believe are contributing factors to the shortage of the home healthcare workers and do you believe the actions taken will exacerbate the shortage? >> that reason as being a healthcare worker provider because you can't live off this work, there's no benefits. you basically have to have anoth