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“Everything is increasing except our salaries”: striking nurses from the University of Illinois at Chicago speak out from the picket line

Umito November 16, 2024

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More than 1,700 nurses at the University of Illinois hospital system, known as UI Health (UIH), in Chicago are on strike. The nurses had been working without a contract since August, when the previous contract expired. After a week-long strike that month, the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) sent nurses back to work without a deal.

In the latest contract offer, UIH proposed a paltry salary increase of just 2 percent. Nurses have now authorized an indefinite strike to win pay increases, better patient-to-nurse staff ratios and improvements to workplace safety and security.

Journalists with World Socialist Website spoke with nurses on the picket line Wednesday to learn more about what’s at stake in the strike.

Melia, an early care nurse who recently started working at UIH Hospital, told reporters, “We need to have safe human resources and the capacity to provide safe care to our patients. Without it, we don’t have what it takes to succeed and do the best we can for our patients.

She added: “I want to make this work a career. I keep hearing from my colleagues that they love working here, but they can’t afford it! Of all the places I applied to, this one offered me the lowest base salary. I want to make this something I can continue to do, and we want to keep our best nurses.

“This is a public hospital, so a lot of people who come here don’t have the same options to go to one of these fancy private hospitals with nice insurance policies. So when we’re trying to provide world-class care, it’s up to us. The patients who come here trust us with their lives and we want to provide them with the best care possible.

Melia and other nurses who spoke with the WSWS shared that in recent years, nurses have experienced a sharp increase in cases of violence in hospitals. Several nurses shared stories of abuse they had witnessed or experienced, including loaded guns being brought into patent rooms.

“Some nurses are having difficulty dealing with the negative consequences of this environment…We had two members of the negotiation team who were assaulted during the negotiation process. For a while, the hospital safety committee wasn’t even represented by a nursing body.” She continued: “To think that this is what we have to deal with every day to provide the care we love to provide is heartbreaking. »

Alejandra, a seasoned pediatric nurse with 14 years of experience, also spoke with WSWS journalists. “We are fighting for fair wages. We demand fair wages to reduce the inflation gap. Our parking has increased, our insurance has increased, everything is increasing except our salaries. She explained: “Currently we are asking for 7%, which I don’t think is a lot to ask given our head nurse got 20%. »

“In the pediatric clinic, the violence we see is more verbal violence from parents and patients. But I think if we had the support and protection of our administration, then we would be able to better serve our patients.

Alejandra said that in her area, there can sometimes be more than 200 patients scheduled at one time. “Currently we have agency nurses helping to fill the gap,” she said, “but there is no staffing ratio in the outpatient unit. So if management could help us get a safe nurse to patient staff ratio, that would be very helpful in helping us determine how many nurses are needed.

She added: “We have over twenty specialties and we have sick children, we have healthy children, we have children who need their vaccines, and they are waiting in the waiting room but there is no there is no room to put them in sight. by doctors. »

“We all care about our patients. We all love our work and what we do. We are committed to working here and towards our patients so that the camaraderie among nurses and the solidarity we have allows us to get through things together.

The UIH strike comes amid a wave of contract struggles and strikes at major health care systems across the United States. At the University of California, more than 40,000 health care workers are expected to go on strike next week over similar issues, including the rapidly rising cost of living. A strike by 4,500 technicians at the University of Michigan Health System was scheduled to begin Tuesday, but was called at the last minute by the United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals (UMMAP) union.

In both cases, union bureaucracies are working to undermine rank-and-file demands for a strike and serious improvement in their conditions. In Michigan, UMMAP agreed to call off the strike after entering into a “memorandum of understanding” with Michigan Medicine.

The memorandum was not an agreement in principle and did not address any of the workers’ demands. His goal was to pretend that progress had been made toward a deal to put workers back to work without improving their conditions.

Likewise, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) predicts that the University of California strike will last only two days. The goal of this type of “Hollywood strike” is to allow workers to let off steam before sending them back to work without a contract.

UIH workers also experienced these tactics in August, when the INA limited the initial strike to just one week before ordering them back to work.

Across the country, health care workers are in a strong position to make dramatic gains that go far beyond the tiny raises proposed by union bureaucrats. But to do this, rank-and-file committees must be organized to take strike organization out of the hands of the INA and other union officials and put it in the hands of healthcare workers themselves.

With a core committee, nurses can present their own list of demands based on their needs, not based on what the hospital administration deems acceptable. It can also combat the isolation of the strike, building connections with health care workers at other health systems in Chicago and across the country. Chicago nurses should partner and coordinate their strikes with health care workers in California, Michigan and other states.

As health care workers fight to keep food on the table, the stock market has soared in anticipation of Donald Trump taking over as the next president. The plans of the billionaire financial oligarchy are well advanced in preparing to increase their already enormous wealth.

These projects can only be financed by increasing the exploitation of the working class. This will involve further price increases, layoffs and a significant reduction in benefits.

Nurses and health care workers do not have to accept these attacks on their standard of living while the capitalist class reaps billions of dollars. There is a lot of money in society to provide nurses with high salaries, full benefits, and to adequately staff hospitals. But this sum is hoarded by the rich.

To win the strike and make serious progress, Chicago nurses should join the rank-and-file committee of health care workers and fight to link the strike in a common struggle with all workers against the capitalist system.

Apre-salomemanzo

Apre-salomemanzo

“Everything is increasing except our salaries”: striking nurses from the University of Illinois at Chicago speak out from the picket line

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“Everything is increasing except our salaries”: striking nurses from the University of Illinois at Chicago speak out from the picket line

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