Skilled maintenance workers at six Prime Healthcare hospitals in Illinois plan to go on strike July 2, with their union alleging that Prime has interfered with their right to organize and bargain collectively.
More than 50 workers will be involved, and the strike will be open ended at this point, lasting until Prime returns to good faith bargaining, said Mia Korinke, a spokesperson for the union, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399. Contract negotiations are ongoing, meaning the strike could still be averted.
The union members include workers who maintain HVAC systems, plumbing and other systems, according to the union, and they work across six hospitals: Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago; Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago; Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines; Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago; Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston; and Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin. Saint Elizabeth is closed, but workers still maintain the building, Korinke said.
The strike comes after the union filed 10 unfair labor practice charges
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with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month against Prime hospitals and MedSpace Services, which is a subsidiary of Prime Healthcare Management Inc. that provides management and support services within the Prime system.Each of the charges alleges that Prime “has intentionally and repeatedly bargained in bad faith with its employees’ exclusive bargaining representative.”
A MedSpace spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday that the hospitals have plans in place to ensure their operations are uninterrupted during the strike, and MedSpace doesn’t expect patient care to be affected.
“From day one, MedSpace Services has respected the rights of its workers to engage in lawful, protected union activity, including the right to organize,” the MedSpace spokesperson said in the statement. “MedSpace has bargained in good faith during all our negotiations with IUOE 399 and will continue to do so, with respect for our employees and in support of our shared future.”
Korinke said that Prime didn’t honor the workers’ contract with the hospital’s previous owner, that they had to reapply for their jobs when Prime bought the hospitals from Ascension last year, and that their seniority restarted at that reapplication.Now, workers want their seniority reinstated, wage scales put back in place and a pay increase, said Joe Wegener, assistant chief engineer at Holy Family. Wegener said he’s been at Holy Family for 14 years, under several different owners, and has never encountered a situation like this. Wegener said he wasn’t able to go on a honeymoon or take off as much time as he had hoped after the birth of his child because of changes to his paid time off under Prime.
“A strike is not something we thought we would ever be doing, based on the history we’ve always had wth the building,” Wegener said. “We’ve always been able to work through things. It’s been very upsetting to see that Prime every step of the way has been fighting every single thing we’ve been trying to get.”
The strike is the latest labor woe facing Prime in Illinois, which has more than 50 hospitals in 15 states.
Nurses at Prime’s Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago went on a one-day strike June 11 to protest what they described as Prime’s “illegal firings” of nurses for what they said were protected union activities. Following the strike, the Saint Mary nurses voted to join the union the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU).
Also, nurses at Prime’s Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet filed a lawsuit against Prime and previous owner Ascension alleging “severe understaffing of nurses.” They filed the lawsuit June 4 in Will County Circuit Court.
A spokesperson for Saint Joseph said in a statement Tuesday that the hospital does not comment on pending litigation and most of the allegations involve periods of time during which Ascension owned the hospital. “Patient care is always our top priority with recent investments to support caregivers, and our current staffing practices align with national best practices for quality and safety,” the Saint Joseph spokesperson said in the statement.
Ascension did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.