Nurses and service workers on strike from the University of Illinois at Chicago marched downtown on a chilly Friday morning to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office, asking the governor for support as they negotiate contracts with the hospital and university.
The workers started marching from Millennium Park to the James R. Thompson Center early Friday morning, and continued the demonstration outside of the University of Illinois Hospital in the city’s Illinois Medical District neighborhood.
A spokesperson for the governor did not immediately return a request for comment.
More than 800 nurses represented by the Illinois Nurses Association have been on strike since Sept. 12 after failing to reach an agreement with the hospital on wages and nurse-to-patient ratios.
Since Monday, more than 4,000 clerical, technical, building and maintenance, and professional employees represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 73 have been on strike, demanding UIC increase safety measures and wages. Those workers are part of four bargaining units at UIC and the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, including the Chicago hospital, clinics and regional medical schools in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana.
As of Friday afternoon, both unions said negotiations are ongoing.
Though SEIU Local 73 said the service workers will continue to strike until they reach an agreement, Illinois Nurses Association has said the strike will last seven days, making Friday the last day nurses could strike before they are called back to work.
The nurses' strike was scheduled to end at 6:59 a.m. Saturday, Illinois Nurses Association spokesman Chris Martin said. Nurses can call another strike, but they will have to vote on it and notify the hospital first, Martin said.
More than 1,000 workers, including nurses, participated in the demonstrations downtown Friday morning, SEIU Local 73 spokesman Adrian Rojas said. Many of them were Black and Latino employees.
Standing outside the Thompson Center with a sweater and a face mask, Angie Ross, who has worked at UIC for about eight years, said she is on strike because she wants to see the university and hospital implement more safety measures.
Ross, 35, of Chicago, is a building service worker who cleans hospital rooms at the University of Illinois Hospital. She said she and her colleagues don’t have enough cleaning supplies to disinfect hospital rooms after each patient visit.
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Ross said she has a 3-year-old daughter with asthma, and fears getting infected with the coronavirus at work and bringing it home to her child.
“I risk her life every day, and I don’t have a choice,” she said.
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