Ascension Joliet nurses ready for another strike vote

Nurses at Ascension–Saint Joseph Joliet hospital vote next week whether to authorize another strike as contract talks drag on.

Their contract expired in July, and nurses said little progress is being made in talks with Ascension that have included a mediator since a two-day strike in August.

Contract talks “are pretty stagnant, and we just want them to move,” said Paula Koranda, secretary for the executive board of the Joliet local for the Illinois Nurses Association.

The vote, which will take place Tuesday through Thursday, would authorize the executive board to call strikes when it sees fit.

“It’s an authorization to have multiple strikes as needed, so we don’t have to go back and vote each and every time,” Koranda said.

The union held a strike for two days in August based on a claim of unfair labor practices. But Ascension kept the nurses out for an additional two days, saying its contract with the company supplying replacement nurses required that they be on the job at least four days.

An Ascension spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the strike vote and whether the hospital would keep nurses out an additional two days if the union does call a two-day strike.

The two-day strikes would be based on claims of unfair labor practices, and the union contends it has multiple claims on which to base future short-term strikes.

A new issue arose at the hospital last week when Ascension began to require that nurses submit biometric data.

John Fitzgerald, chief negotiator for the Illinois Nurses Association, which is the union that represents the Joliet nurses, said the union is seeking more information about the demand that nurses submit biometric data that would include fingerprints and other identifying data.

“These are people who can’t run a payroll department,” Fitzgerald said, referring to a union complaint about repeated payroll mistakes that shortchange nurses on pay. “We are concerned about their collecting biometric data.”

Issues still pending in the contract talks include:

• A demand from the union that Ascension hire an addition 360 nurses at the hospital to replace staff that has left since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Pay, which the nurses want increased between 21% and 25%, while Ascension has offered increases that start at 18% for new nurses and decline for those with more experience until pay hikes are cut off completely for nurses with more than 20 years at the hospital.

• Extended periods for seeking corrections in payroll mistakes.