CHICAGO—Save one life, and you’re a hero. Save a hundred, and you’re “just” a nurse.
That sentiment was on full display Thursday, Sept. 3, when nurses at three Prime Healthcare hospitals—Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Ill., and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine—staged a one-day strike. Nurses at all three hospitals had filed petitions for National Labor Relations Board union elections on Aug. 24.
The picket line at Saint Mary’s drew more than 100 of the hospital’s 400 nurses. Black, Latino, Filipino, Asian, and white nurses stood united against a corporation that now operates 55 hospitals in 15 states, marching under slogans like “Stop Sub-Prime Health Care” and “Prime is a Crime.”
Prime Healthcare CEO Prem Reddy “could fund the nurses’ demands with his loose change,” said David Zulton, chair of Healthcare Justice for The People’s Lobby. A flier distributed at the strike read: “Where in the world is he? He can fly away from the bargaining table, but he can’t hide from these nurses forever.”
“St. Mary’s cares more about profits than patient outcomes,” said Vanessa Moreno, a telemetry nurse. She described broken elevators, slow response times during emergencies, and a lack of air conditioning through the summer’s hot, humid days—all worsening outcomes for patients. She said a nurse manager told her to “fix her attitude” for speaking out. “My attitude doesn’t need fixing,” she said. “The hospital needs to fix the way it operates and put patients over profits.”
Brenda Hernandez, a 10-year ICU nurse, spoke with People’s World while walking the picket line. “We are fighting for our community,” she said. “Prime Healthcare is cutting resources not just here but at hospitals throughout Illinois.” She pointed to the closure of OB-GYN units at Prime’s Aurora and Joliet hospitals, which she said puts pregnant patients at risk, since the nearest Prime hospital would then be 25 miles away.
Emily Isakson, who was placed on indefinite suspension from Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, spoke about nurse staffing—describing units that used to assign two to four patients per nurse now assigning six to eight. Elena, a child and adolescent psychiatric nurse, said safe working conditions and proper staffing are the key issues. “We need resources to adequately care for the patients and to attract skilled nurses,” she said. Other rank-and-file nurses told People’s World that their health insurance claims are being denied and that they are not being reimbursed for continuing education.
“We look forward to winning our Sept. 23 NLRB election and joining with all of you,” said Hillary, a nurse from Olympia Fields who was fired for union activity. “We are resilient and unwavering.”
Nurses from Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, and Maryland came out to support their brothers and sisters on strike. Leslie Rogers, a nurse from Kansas City, said that five nurses came from Kansas City and two from Wichita because “an injustice to one is an injustice to all, and the injustice here is just overwhelming.” Her hospital has been unionized since 2012.
Barry, a hospital educator, spoke of his connection to the striking nurses. “They provide so much. Nurses make my job easier—they are true team members. Nurses shouldn’t have to go through this,” he said. David Zulton thanked the nurses, saying he would not have survived his amputation without their care.
“We’ve got your backs,” Mayor Brandon Johnson told the assembled strikers. “We are here to support the front-line nurses against mega hospital corporations, to make sure you are well compensated and that the patients they serve have safety. I’ve called for a general strike—that’s what we should be organizing towards.”
Alderman Jessie Fuentes, 26th Ward, said working conditions have grown deplorable since Prime bought up community hospitals, and that Prime must stop firing union organizers and put patients and nurses first.
Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th Ward, called on Prime Healthcare’s CEO to stop terrorizing frontline workers. He spoke of how nurses helped care for his triplets and his other children, and said everyone deserves dignified health care.
State Rep. Norma Hernandez stressed that this is her family’s hospital. She said the community lost a community hospital, and it has turned into a hospital run for profit—treating both the community and the nurses like a change purse. Nurses’ wages, she said, are connected to better health outcomes, and nurses need a living wage to afford to live in the community they serve.
Alderman Dan Estrada, whose ward the hospital sits in, emphasized that it is his family’s hospital in an emergency, as it is for thousands of others.
Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps, a proud daughter of the labor movement and a former Chicago Teachers Union member, spoke of conditions across the country, where the wealthy are gaining more wealth off of schools, health care, and prison institutions. She noted that the nurses, teachers, and staff of these institutions are disproportionately women and people of color, being squeezed while billionaires get richer. The political leaders’ speeches, taken together, could be summed up in one line: We need our healers inside, not outside.
State Rep. Will Guzzardi, 39th District, spoke of the new addition to the state constitution guaranteeing workers’ rights to organize, saying the firing of these nurses violates both federal and now state law. He added that when hospitals come asking for more money, he’s determined to ask whether they’re doing right by their patients and their workers.
Ethan Aronson, a faith and community organizer with Arise Chicago, spoke of the need for faith and labor to come together, returning again and again to one phrase: common sense. “Common sense says pay the nurses. Common sense says keep appropriate staff-to-patient ratios. Common sense — and morality — stands with nurses and patients,” he said. “This is a holy struggle. When nurses struggle, the faith community will be there. End the ways of the wicked.” Genuine healing, he said, means the hospital should live up to its name — Saint Mary, who believed in healing the poor.
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