Ascension Joliet places lockout on striking nurses

Union nurses in Joliet braved the extreme heat to strike for a second day outside a Joliet hospital with no signs of any progress on contract negotiations.

The nurses were waving signs, chanting and dancing to music Wednesday on the Madison Street side of Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet hospital. Many vehicles that passed by the nurses honked in support of them.

There was no communication between Ascension and the nurses’ union.

“We have heard absolutely nothing from them,” said Sara Hurd, an organizer for the Illinois Nurses Association.

Ascension spokesman Timothy Nelson did not respond to multiple calls Wednesday about the strike or statements from the nurses and union officials who spoke to the Herald-News.

Even though strike officially ended Wednesday evening, Hurd said the union nurses will continue to strike because they have been locked out of the hospital. Ascension imposed the lockout until Saturday and beyond the planned two-day strike.

“We have heard absolutely nothing from them.”

—  Sara Hurd, an organizer for the Illinois Nurses Association

Hurd and other nurses said they’ve heard the hospital is now overstaffed with agency nurses that have been brought to the hospital. The union nurses claim there is a 1:1 ratio of patients and nurses in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Safe staffing levels is something the union has been fighting for years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Pat Meade, member of the union’s negotiating team and treasurer of the St. Joseph’s Nurses Association.

“Will it be that way on Monday?” Meade said.

The number of staff nurses at the Joliet hospital has declined by about 300 over the past five years to 520 today.

Still, Meade said she’s heard from patients and families that they are not satisfied with the care they are receiving from the agency nurses. Those nurses hail from companies such as Prolink Staffing, Continuum Health and other Ascension locations, according to the nurses’ union.

“Are they qualified to do the jobs in the areas they have been placed?” Meade said.

The substitute nurses are being paid a minimum of $7,000 for four days of work, nurse Cathy Coffey said this week, pointing to a text notice she got from Prolink Staffing.

The median nurses wage at the Joliet hospital is $40 an hour, John Fitzgerald, chief negotiator for the INA, told the Herald-News this week.

Union officials have accused Ascension of union-busting tactics, pointing to the lockout issued by the company.

Ascension issued a statement earlier this week referring to “this disheartening strike” and said it would “fulfill our commitment to uninterrupted quality care for our patients” with staffing agency nurses.

Picketing nurses have voiced their determination to improve wages and staffing at the Joliet hospital. The nurses want better working conditions, staffing and pay – none of which the union said Ascension was addressing at contract negotiations last held Aug. 1.

The nurses contract, which was reached after a strike in 2020, expired July 19.