Local 1216 RNs defeat management's dangerous staffing proposals

Registered nurses (RNs) at Loretto Hospital in Chicago have won a new contract, defeating management’s proposals that would have compromised staff safety and worsened the quality of care for patients at the hospital. 

AFSCME Local 1216 secured strong wage adjustments that rectified the issue of veteran staff being under-compensated as compared to their more recently hired colleagues.

Going into negotiations, mismanagement of the hospital’s finances depleted resources and caused the hospital to lose patients to other facilities, which in turn drove down the patient census and brought in less revenue to the hospital. To make up for their own mishandling of the hospital’s finances, management attempted to erode the nursing staff and eliminate the step plan established in their union contract.

“Every nurse at Loretto loves their job,” Local 1216 President Jessica Bell said. “We do this job for the patients. But management was trying to take the only pay incentive away from us. That was not going to fly.” 

Management’s disastrous proposals included dramatically increasing patient ratios for RNs, making charge nurses responsible for entire floors rather than just a single unit, taking charge-nurse duties away from staff nurses and assigning them to often-absent managers, and cutting out charge nurses from the hospital’s staffing standards.

When management refused to budge from these proposals, Local 1216 members prepared to strike. Members made clear on social media their reasons for and willingness to strike. Additionally, the Member Action Team did one-on-one outreach to the entire bargaining unit to make sure each member knew exactly what was at stake, convincing them to sign a pledge to strike for safe staffing if it became necessary.

“Management didn’t come off a lot of the unfair, unsafe things they were pushing until they saw we were ready to strike,” Bell said. “We were serious, and they knew it.”

Local 1216 also took the issue to the community. The local’s efforts culminated in a delegation of West Side religious, elected and community leaders delivering a letter to the CEO during negotiations demanding a fair contract.

Their efforts worked. Management’s dangerous staffing proposals were defeated, and Local 1216 won a fair contract that protected nurse staffing, correcting step placement for veteran staff members and maintaining the step plan to raise the wages of less-senior nurses. 

The bargaining team included Jessica Bell (President), Sandra Weeks (Vice President), Mafa Jean-Louis (Treasurer), Mary Ann Cawley (Membership Chair) and Executive Board Members Ola Yesufu and Twana Johnson. The committee was led by Council 31 Staff Representative Rick Surber.