Over 5,000 Health Care Workers Are on Strike in Chicago
After months of inadequate PPE and multiple health care workers dying of COVID-19, more than 5,000 workers from two separate unions are on strike at the University of Illinois-Chicago health system.
More than 5,000 workers from Service Employees Local 73 and Illinois Nurses Association have gone on strike at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s hospital, clinics, and other campus divisions. Photo: SEIU Local 73
On Friday, a Cook County judge filed a partial injunction against nearly 5,500 health care workers preparing to strike at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s hospital, clinics, and other campus divisions. The judge cited a “clear and present danger” to patients, reducing the number of union members who could participate in the strike.
But to members of the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) and Service Employees Local 73, the clear and present dangers at UIC are unsafe staffing levels, lack of protective equipment, and poverty wages, especially in the coronavirus pandemic.
On Saturday, undeterred, the remaining 800 INA nurses went on strike, in the unit’s first walkout at UIC in forty-six years. And on Monday, nearly 4,000 clerical, technical, building and maintenance, and professional workers in SEIU Local 73 joined them. The INA nurses are in their fifth day of a seven-day strike; Local 73 is in its third day of an indefinite strike.
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