Ascension Joliet nurses remain off the job with hospital lockout

Nurses at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet made a symbolic effort to go back to work Thursday, a demonstration that their two-day strike has turned into a two-day lockout.

More than 500 nurses have been off the job since early Tuesday morning in a strike as negotiations stagnate on a contract that expired July 19.

The strike was to end Thursday morning. But Ascension is keeping the nurses out until Saturday morning, saying its contract with the staffing agency supplying substitute nurses requires that they be there at least four days.

“I was one of the nurses who was trying to get in,” Jenn Onderisin said. “I want to show I am ready to go back to work.”

About 20 nurses, most of them who would have normally been scheduled to work Thursday morning, tried to enter the hospital, Onderisin said.

Nurses said they want the public to be aware that the work stoppage was extended another two days by Ascension’s lockout.

Ascension in a statement put out Tuesday said in effect that its hand was forced once the nurses announced they planned to walk out.

“Regardless of the planned duration of the strike event, we are contractually required to commit to a minimum of four days of work for any registered nursing staff replaced, starting from the first day of a strike,” according to the statement.

“I was one of the nurses who was trying to get in. I want to show I am ready to go back to work.”

—  Jenn Onderisin, nurse at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet

Ascension announced that nurses would be kept off the job until Saturday soon after the Illiinois Nurses Association on April 11 announced its intent to conduct the two-day strike.

Even so, Onderisin said, patients inside the hospital were getting letters from the hospital administration delivered on their food trays days before the strike telling that the nurses were walking out for two days and making no mention of the two-day lockout that was to follow.

“They just failed to mention that it was a four-day work stoppage, not a two-day work stoppage,” she said.

Onderisin said the hospital letter sparked discussion between nurses and patients about the strike.

“Most of them were very supportive of the nurses,” Onderisin said.

Nurses say their numbers are dwindling at the hospital.

Staff nurses at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet have fallen to 520 compared to more than 800 five years ago.

Nurses say pay at the Joliet hospital lags behind other hospitals in the area. According to the Illinois Nurses Association, it has surveyed nurses that left in the past year and found their pay increased by 30% after changing jobs.

The union wants Ascension to make a commitment to increase staffing in the new contract while also seeking pay hikes.

Staffing was an issue three years ago when nurses went on strike before reaching a contract agreement at the Joliet hospital.