Hundreds of advanced practice nurses, physician assistants and midwives at UI Health have voted to authorize a strike, delivering a 10-day strike notice Friday to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board and the University of Illinois Chicago, according to their union, SEIU Local 73, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. The providers could walk off the job as soon as Nov. 11.
The dispute centers on a 2% wage increase the union says UIC denied the roughly 200 providers in August even as it was given to other hospital staff. SEIU Local 73 says the providers have gone two years without a raise or cost-of-living adjustment, and that they are also fighting for pay that keeps pace with the market, pay transparency and equity, safe staffing, and the ability to take meal breaks and use earned sick time.
The union’s president, Dian Palmer, said in a news release that the providers voted to strike because of what she called the egregious behavior of an employer that refuses to come to the bargaining table and continues a lawsuit to stop the workers from gaining the respect and compensation they deserve. The union also claims UIC filed a motion with the state appellate court to stop bargaining while simultaneously arguing that any wage increase would need to be bargained — behavior the union called duplicitous and a trigger for the strike vote.
UI Health, for its part, says a state appellate court has entered an order temporarily pausing collective bargaining between the university and the union. In a statement, the health system maintained that a strike would be unlawful while the court’s order remains in effect and until the legal requirements for a lawful strike have been met, saying it expects the union to follow the law and allow the legal process to proceed.
The health system added that should a work stoppage occur, it has comprehensive contingency plans in place to maintain operations and ensure safe, high-quality patient care at the University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics, the public academic medical center on Chicago’s Near West Side that serves a large share of Medicaid patients from surrounding neighborhoods.
The standoff has been brewing for more than a year over whether SEIU Local 73 is even allowed to represent the providers, a question of representation jurisdiction that has kept the parties in court rather than at the table. Labor relations experts note the case is being watched across Illinois public-sector healthcare, since it will help define the boundaries of collective bargaining rights for advanced practice providers within the state’s university system.
For Chicago’s healthcare economy, the timing is delicate. The possible strike date falls just days after the announcement that Endeavor Health and Rush University System for Health proposed a merger to create one of the region’s largest health systems, and as hospital systems across the city confront persistent staffing shortages and rising labor costs. A work stoppage at the state’s flagship public hospital would add strain to a market already adjusting to consolidation.
The union says it would rather negotiate than strike, and no date has been announced. Both sides remain in a legal posture, with the appellate court’s pause on bargaining in effect, making the next moves dependent on court scheduling as much as on labor negotiations.
Patients and community groups have urged both sides to reach a settlement, noting that the hospital anchors care for thousands of Chicagoans on the West Side. With the strike notice clock running, city hall and state officials are watching closely for any escalation that could disrupt one of Illinois’ largest public healthcare operations.
