St.  Joseph Hospital nurses continue contract negotiations with Ascension Healthcare, owner of St. Joseph, in spite of little to no progress on the key issue of pay increases.

The union’s contract expired on Wednesday, July 19. The nurses held a press conference and picketed for a better contract. 

The St. Joseph Union representatives began negotiations with officials in May about their demands. Nurses sought wage increases, staff level increases, back-pay from pay freezes in 2020, and other major changes to the contract’s language.

Ascension Healthcare’s most recent wage increase offer was not acceptable to the bargaining committee, said John Fitzgerald, the union staff specialist at Illinois Nurses Association (INA). The nurses right now receive “a nominal 4% salary increase every year, despite a 19% inflation increase since 2020,” Fitzgerald said. 

The hospital struggles to retain staff, and many nurses are leaving for higher-paying jobs. This leads to the shifts being short-staffed. The nurses are overworked and underpaid, said Katherine Soprych, Intensive Care Unit ICU nurse. “These negotiations are critical as Ascension Saint Joseph is the only hospital in Joliet, she continued.”

State Senator Rachel Ventura spoke at the protest last week supporting the nurses in their call to action. Ventura announced her office is working with the Illinois Department of Public Health to investigate. “Healthcare workers should have a viable and transparent relationship with their employers,” said Ventura. “St. Joe’s nurses deserve to work in an environment with safe staffing levels.”

The hospital has been out of compliance with the Illinois Nurse Staffing Improvement Act: Senate Bill 2153 for two years. This bill set minimum staffing guidelines. But,  as the hospital reduces capacity and staff, St. Joseph nurse Mary Sue Bolton said, nurse-to-patient ratios can climb from the mandated 1:4 to 1:6. 

 Soprych shared that Saint Josephs has lost over 300 nurses in the past three years. “Staffing is key to patient safety,” said Sopych. She explained that having enough staff allows the nurses to respond quickly to a patient’s needs. When the ratio of nurse-to-patient drops, mortality rates increase, as founded by the National Institute for Health.

“We need fair wages that are competitive with other hospitals. They should be paying Joliet’s registered nurses enough, so they are able to serve their own community,” said Soprych.

Soprych noted that in October of 2022, she walked into a night shift in the ICU where the ratio of nurses to patients was double what it was supposed to be. She and her colleagues spent the first few hours in the break room on the phone trying to get the hospital to send more staff and calling nurses who were not working to call in. The situation was dangerous for both the nurses and their patients. The nurses were fearful that if something happened, they would be criminally liable.

The Nurses Association is now going through a strike authorization vote. By Friday, the group will announce if they plan to go on strike. 

Several other Ascension hospitals in Kansas and Texas are also undergoing contract negotiations.

So far, the hospital has offered a one-time bonus to union members, depending on the upcoming contract. They have removed restrictions that prevent nurses with foreign experience from receiving credit and removed language from the contract that could lead to litigation if nurses strike.

Ascension also proposed a change to the wage scale, that offers larger raises for nurses with up to 21 years of experience but leaves more experienced nurses with stagnant wages. 

Sarah Hurd, INA organizer, explained that this is simply insufficient. The INA completed market research earlier this year and found that nurses that left St. Joes earned up to 29-30% at local competitor Silver Cross.

Nurses and Ascension still have not resolved several key issues. Nurses are calling for a comprehensive new grad education program, a full week of bereavement time for part-time nurses, and stopping a pull system that could move nurses with certain specializations to a different unit when demanded.

Pat Meade, St. Joseph Chair of the Political Action Committee and treasurer, said “ We should be able to accept a new team of nurses and continue teaching them as they begin their career.”

Ascension Healthcare has remained in the headlines for the past year. 

The New York Times released its investigation on how the healthcare titan has strategically cut staffing expenses to increase profits. Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, called out Ascension earlier this year for its prioritization of private investment and profit, despite its designation as a nonprofit organization. 

Baldwin questioned why Ascension is “not prioritizing reinvestment into serving vulnerable communities and its own operations—which should include increasing pay and improving working conditions for its’ burned out and overextended health care workforce.”

The nurses also held a 15-day strike in the summer of 2020 due to the same issues of low wages and low staffing levels. Although this was before the healthcare company was restructured to Ascension, the same leadership was involved. 

“The company is known for pocketing money saved on labor costs,” said Hurd.

Also in February, several nurses sued Ascension for wage theft. Fitzgerald said nurses have not been paid for sick time, overtime, or working holidays. Wages have also not increased correctly according to the pay scale from year to year. Some have even been shorted eight hours of wages in a week and others may wait months to receive payment. Ascension denies these claims.

Fitzgerald added that subcontracting remains a huge issue. Ascension is accused of   bringing in private agency nurses to replace regular staff.

Soprych said, “We love our agency nurses. But we often have to educate them about hospital protocols and the documentation system.” She explained that this could be draining and that agency nurses might not meet their standard of care.

Kaitlynd French, a medical oncology nurse at St. Joseph, describes the weeks’ negotiations as “cold” and a “roadblock.” She usually sits with other nurses and union organizers across from three Ascension officials who are largely mute. The nurses meet with these officials at a local motel. They will spend 12 hours a day in a conference room strategizing priorities and bargaining. However, actual negotiations where both parties are at the table rarely go over 15 minutes each day. They spend a lot of the day waiting for management to make incremental improvements to the contract.

Things are basically at a standstill, French said. “There are no meaningful conversations from the other side about the needs of the nurses.”

They seem to think we’re robots, without souls, families, and purpose. They think we are here just to do the job,” said Meade. “That’s the human piece that is missing.”

Through changing leadership, the hospital has been a pillar of Joliet for over fifty years. Nurses just want to be fairly compensated and ensure the best outcomes for patients.

“I didn’t think things were going to change unless I and the people around me started standing up.” French said, “This is home. I love my patients. I love taking care of people…this is a community hospital.”