Joliet nurses to vote on Ascension contract offer

Nurses at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet hospital plan to vote next week on a contract proposal made by Ascension on Tuesday.

The vote will mark the first on a contract proposal in the negotiations that began in May and have been marked by two short-term strikes and lockouts.

But it also will come with a recommendation from the union executive board that the nurses vote against the contract proposal, said Sarah Hurd, organizer for the Illinois Nurses Association.

The union is calling for a vote because the proposal was presented as Ascension’s “last, best and final offer,” Hurd said.

“We don’t like it,” Hurd said. “We think they’ve just repackaged their last proposal and presented it like it’s a new proposal.”

The Ascension proposal does not provide for the gains in pay and staffing that nurses have been seeking, Hurd said.

Ascension did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday afternoon.

The vote is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

The nurses’ previous contract expired in July.

Nurses have said they wanted Ascension to hire 360 nurses to counter a decline in staffing that has led to their numbers falling from 800 to fewer than 530. They also called for significant pay hikes, saying the exit of nurses was due in large part to pay lagging behind what nurses could get at other area hospitals.

Nurses went on two two-day strikes in August and November, alleging unfair labor practices based on the use of outside agency nurses at the hospitals. Both work stoppages were extended another two days with lockouts by Ascension, which said its contract for replacement nurses required that they be on board for at least four days.