Joliet nurses OK more strikes at Ascension Saint Joseph

Nurses at Ascension Saint Joseph-Joliet hospital have authorized the union to call additional strikes as needed as negotiations are about to drag into the fifth month since their contract expired.

A strike date has not been set. However, 81% of voting nurses this week authorized the union to call additional strikes.

The vote “essentially gives the executive board the authority to call two-day strikes as needed,” Kaitlyn French, communication director for the executive board of the Illinois Nurses Association’s Joliet chapter, said Friday.

French said the union would discuss a potential strike date in a strategy call with members after the next bargaining session with Ascension on Monday.

The union went on strike for two days in August. But nurses were out four days after Ascension imposed a two-day lockout saying its contract with the company supplying replacement nurses required they be employed for at least four days.

The strike vote this week took place Tuesday through Thursday. The union said 87% of its members participated in the vote.

French characterized the turnout and the support for more strikes as “an excellent representation of how everyone is feeling.”

She described negotiations as “slow” with “hardly any movement” by Ascension.

In an email, Ascension spokesman Timothy Nelson said the hospital group is bargaining “in good faith” with the union “to come to a mutually beneficial agreement on a contract that supports all and furthers our goal of providing safe, compassionate care to those we serve.”

Nelson said that if the union gives official notice of a strike, Ascension has “a comprehensive contingency plan in place to ensure our patients experience no disruption in care or service.”

A two-day strike would be called on a claim of an unfair labor practice at the hospital. The last strike was called over the use of nonunion agency nurses employed by Ascension to fill staffing gaps.

Nurses point to a steady decline in staff nurses at the hospital from 800 to fewer than 530. The union wants Ascension to hire an additional 360 nurses and increase pay to stem the departure of nurses leaving for other jobs.

The nurses’ contract expired in July.