More Top Picks Chainsaw
player ready...Hundreds of registered nurses at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago plan to again go on a one-day strike as they try to reach their first contract with the hospital’s new owner Prime Healthcare.
Nurses at three other Prime hospitals in Anaheim and Redding, California, and Reno, Nevada, also plan to strike the same day, from the morning of Sept. 3 to the morning of Sept. 4. Workers at all three hospitals are represented by affiliates of the union National Nurses United.
Nurses at St. Mary, in Ukrainian Village, are working to win their first contract after unionizing in June. They allege that hospital management has stopped nurses on the negotiating team from discussing patient care and staffing with colleagues.
“Nurses have become overwhelmed with the number of patients we are assigned — to the point where we cannot safely assess or attend to all of the patients’ needs,” said Vanessa Moreno, a nurse at Saint Mary, in a union news release.
A spokesperson for Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital said in a statement Monday night that if the strike proceeds, the hospital has “comprehensive plans in place to ensure uninterrupted hospital operations and patient care.” The hospital did not answer questions about whether it plans to bring in agency nurses, reschedule elective surgeries or move patients elsewhere if the nurses strike.
“We remain committed to bargaining in good faith and reaching an agreement that supports our nurses, our patients and our community, and are hopeful that a strike can be averted,” according to the statement. The statement noted that since buying the hospital, Prime has invested nearly $4 million in new medical equipment and plans to invest another $23 million.
Prime, a for-profit company based in California, bought St. Mary and seven other Illinois hospitals from nonprofit Ascension last year. Earlier this year, a state board approved the sale of another Illinois hospital, Franciscan Health Olympia Fields, to Prime.
The nurses at St. Mary previously went on a one-day strike June 11. At the time, the nurses alleged that several of their colleagues, who were leading the union campaign, were fired after they filed their petition to hold a union election.
Since Prime bought the Illinois hospitals, it has faced criticism for changes it made at some of them, but also earned praise from several members of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board for stepping in to run challenged hospitals.