“Toni, Toni, Toni… Full of Baloney!”

Working at Chicago’s huge Cook County healthcare system is hard enough at the best of times. It serves a tough urban community. It wasn’t by chance that NBC chose it as their setting for the long running television drama ER. The Covid pandemic was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the workers there. 150 nurses contracted Covid. Workloads became intolerable. Stress levels rocketed. It’s no surprise then that the current round of labor negotiations is on the rocks. The purpose of this article is to explain where things stand with the unions at CCH.

The unions

To begin with, two different unions represent CCH workers. The National Nurses Organizing Committee, which is the Illinois affiliate of National Nurses United, organizes 1,250 nurses at Cook County Health. They primarily work at Stroger and Provident hospitals. The 464 bed Stroger Hospital is the centerpiece of CCH. The other union is Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73. They represent 2,449 workers at Stroger and Provident Hospitals, the large 69 W. Washington office building, Cook County Jail, and the County highway maintenance facilities. These obviously are not all medical facilities, but they are County institutions under the control of Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

The issues

Two issues dominate the bargaining table. The first is staffing. A good number of nurses have resigned due to the frightful conditions at CCH. This exodus of experienced nurses has led to serious understaffing. For example, there should be 35 nurses in the Stroger Emergency Room at the beginning of each day. In reality, it’s somewhere between 22 and 30 depending on the day. In the first five months of this year, at least one unit was out of compliance with staffing guidelines on 50% of days.

Management has two options in this situation. They could offer decent wages and manageable workloads and therefore make experienced nurses less likely to resign. The other option is to hire non-union temporary or agency nurses and to leave many positions unfilled. No prizes for guessing which course management has taken.

The union response has been to outline the steps the County could take to end this disruptive instability. It’s summed up in the slogan, “Make Cook County a Provider and Employer of Choice.” The County should pay decent wages, maintain manageable workloads, follow seniority provisions, and protect workers’ health and welfare during the pandemic. The union outlines a similar set of steps to make the system effectively serve the community.

The second issue is health insurance. While both the unions face substantial increases in the insurance costs, this issue is front and center for the Service Employees. In some cases, the premium increases are larger than the wage increases in management’s package. This led union activist Sylvia Kizer, a Stroger Environmental Services Worker, to make the poignant remark, “Some of you say, ‘I can’t afford to strike.’ I can’t afford a pay cut.” This seems to be the central issue of the strike for many SEIU members.

The strikes

The nurses went on a one-day strike on Thursday, June 24. About 330 nurses were enjoined from striking by a court injunction. So, a little over 900 went out. Picket lines were very spirited and up-beat. The main picket on Damen Avenue was up to 200 strikers and supporters at one point. Dance music was played from a powerful sound system. There was continuous honking from passing drivers. The dancing and waving created a lively and confident atmosphere. In the evening a virtual strike rally took place.

On Friday, the nurses returned to work and the SEIU went on strike. Again, there was an injunction which kept about 500 SEIU members at work. This means there were about 2,000 on strike. The first two days of the strike have seen mass pickets and rallies, despite terrible weather.

Saturday’s rally highlighted many of the themes of the strike. There were about two hundred, mainly African American, strikers at the rally. There was great pride that not only had Stroger Hospital struck, but workers in all parts of the County system were also out. There were frequent references to the historic inspirations of the Black movement, such as Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. The well-organized and militant rally coined the great new slogan, “Toni, Toni, Toni, Full of Baloney! [referring to Preckwinkle].” Rallies like this are essential to a successful strike.

Originally, the SEIU was going to strike along with the nurses on June 24. A joint strike would have been a powerful demonstration of class unity. Joint strikes are fairly uncommon at the moment. However, SEIU 73 has a good record in this regard. They struck jointly with the teachers during the last CTU last strike. A few blocks away from Stroger, they struck University of Illinois Hospital together with the nurses last year. From the outside, it’s not clear what led to the decision to change the strike date.

The two strikes have shown Cook County workers’ determination to fight for better treatment and conditions. These essential workers deserve the active solidarity of the rest of the labor movement.