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About 200 workers at Loretto Hospital on Chicago’s West Side plan to strike in coming weeks over what they allege are substandard wages and issues with safe staffing.
The workers, represented by the union SEIU Healthcare Illinois, gave the hospital a formal 10-day strike notice Wednesday.
The striking employees would include patient transporters; patient care technicians; emergency room technicians; mental health and behavioral health workers; respiratory and radiology technicians; and those who work in housekeeping, among others, said Anne Igoe, vice president of hospitals for SEIU Healthcare Illinois.
It’s still possible the hospital and union could reach an agreement, averting the strike. The union and hospital have three additional bargaining sessions scheduled for late July, Igoe said.
The union says it plans to strike after hospital management failed to address wages and unsafe staffing levels. The union says workers also want Juneteenth as a holiday. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, celebrating Black slaves being freed in Texas after the Civil War ended.
“These workers are sounding the alarm bell of unsafe working conditions as a result of the current staffing levels,” Igoe said. “These are hospitals that as a direct result of the low wages they offer, they cannot fill the number of vacant position they have. Some workers are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week in order to provide the care that’s necessary. … That’s not sustainable.”
Loretto said in a statement Tuesday evening that it hopes to reach a new agreement with the union soon.
“We appreciate our employees in the SEIU and respect their right to bargain,” Loretto said in the statement. “We have not been able to reach a new Agreement yet, but we will continue to work toward that goal.”
Workers and community members stood outside the hospital Wednesday for a news conference to announce the strike. Drivers honked their horns in support as they passed.
“We have no choice but to do the right thing and hope Loretto wakes up and starts doing the right thing — take care of our Black and brown community, which includes workers, create a safe environment and address staffing,” Wellington Thomas, lead emergency department technician at Loretto and a member of the bargaining committee team, said at the news conference.
Loretto is a safety-net hospital in the predominantly Black community of Austin. Many of its patients are on Medicaid, a state and federally funded health insurance program for people with low incomes and/or disabilities.
In recent years, nurses at a number of Chicago area hospitals have gone on strike, often saying that their hospitals don’t have safe staffing. Workers represented by SEIU Healthcare Illinois at other Chicago area hospitals have also spoken out about low wages and unsafe staffing at their hospitals in recent years.