More than 1,700 University of Illinois nurses to begin 7-day strike at end of month

More than 1,700 nurses at the University of Illinois Health Group are expected to strike for a week starting Aug. 19, according to leaders of the Illinois Nurses Association.

It would also bring about 40 licensed practical nurses to the picket line for five days, starting the day after the current contract expires on Aug. 18.

The group’s demands include higher wages to keep up with rising living costs, paid parental leave longer than the current six weeks and a lower staff-to-patient ratio. They also want specialists to continue working in their areas of expertise rather than across hospital departments, and clauses to protect their contracts if clinics or hospitals are sold.

“Patient care will improve because we won’t have to run around like chickens with their heads cut off to meet their needs,” Paul Pater, an emergency room nurse and co-director of the Illinois Nurses Association, told the Sun-Times Friday. “We’ll be able to actually spend time with patients.”

The group also wants a better security plan. Pater said that while the university has security personnel to mitigate violence, they are often “reactive, not proactive,” and can only be called in response to an incident.

It’s a personal matter for Pater. He had to undergo bilateral hip surgery in 2021 after being assaulted by a patient.

“The emergency department is always a hotbed of violence,” Pater said. “Our psychiatric ward has had several incidents where people’s lives have been changed forever because of a violent patient or visitor.”

The health group said it was “disappointed” by the announcement.

“We have comprehensive plans in place, including a process to secure nursing agency staff, to ensure continued operations and safe patient care at the University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics,” the health group wrote in a statement.

Further negotiation sessions between the two groups are expected to take place in the days leading up to the strike.

Pater has now been involved in three contract negotiations with the university health group. The last one led to a seven-day strike in 2020 that saw them land a contract less than a week later.

This time, the negotiations resulted in multiple complaints of unfair labor practices and a new strike.

“This is the first time I have met a management negotiator who is not interested in reaching a mutual agreement,” he said.

He said he expected to see “significant” movement following the strike, citing recent success by the Illinois Nurses Association at Howard Brown Health and other groups.

“We’re not afraid to jump in and we’ve had some recent successes that prove that,” Pater said. “At the end of the day, it’s about patients, and you can’t take care of patients if you can’t work with your staff.”