More than 1,300 University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics nurses have voted to authorize a strike, saying they want better pay, staffing and security.
About 98% of 1,377 nurses voted last week voted in favor of letting their bargaining team call a strike, according to the union, the Illinois Nurses Association. A strike date has not yet been set, and a strike could still be averted. The nurses and health system have several more bargaining dates scheduled for this week.
A spokeswoman for UI Health did not immediately provide a comment on the vote Tuesday morning.
The nurses’ current four-year contract expires Aug. 19. The nurses want pay that’s on-par with other area hospitals, and they want better staffing. They also want more security at the health system, and they say that nurses who’ve been attacked by patients should be allowed to take leaves of absence, said Sarah Hurd, an Illinois Nurses Association organizer.
The nurses last went on strike four years ago, for about a week in 2020. During that strike the hospital brought in temporary nurses, asked ambulances to take new patients elsewhere, didn’t take patient transfers from other hospitals and canceled elective procedures.
A Cook County judge ruled, at the time, that 525 nurses who worked in critical care units couldn’t participate in that strike because it would put patient safety at risk. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees had sued to keep many of the nurses from striking.
The nurses were scheduled to go on strike in 2017 as well, but that strike was averted shortly before it was to begin.
