CHICAGO — After voting overwhelmingly to strike, hundreds of members of the Illinois Nurses Association walked off the job at the University of Illinois Hospital here when their contract expired Aug. 19. This kicked off a weeklong work stoppage, in a fight for more staffing, pay raises to keep up with rising prices and safer working conditions.
“I’ve been here 33 years, and this is the worst I’ve seen it,” Veyon Rowland told the Militant, referring to the way hospital management is treating them. “They want to ‘float’ us into specialty areas that we are not trained for. I work in the mom-and-baby area, and they want to send me to labor and delivery.”
Hospital management is proposing raises for nurses averaging just 1.8% per year over a four-year contract. The Illinois Nurses Association is demanding 10% per year over three years.
The union represents some 1,700 nurses at the hospital. The bosses got a court injunction ordering about 600 emergency room, intensive care and other nurses to stay on the job. Management had pushed for a broader injunction, bemoaning the fact it would be harder to house scab nurses during the Democratic National Convention.
The nurses picket from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Chicago Federation of Labor has called a solidarity day for the final day of the strike Aug. 25.