About 200 Loretto Hospital workers will return to work after their union reached a tentative contract agreement with hospital leadership Thursday, following an 11-day strike.

The union SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Loretto announced Thursday evening that they reached the tentative agreement, which provides wage increases for all employees and a Juneteenth paid holiday.

Under the new agreement, all positions at Loretto will pay at least minimum wage. Employees will also become eligible for wage increases based on years of service.

Juneteenth was declared an official state holiday in Illinois in 2021. As of January 2022, it is a paid holiday for state employees if it falls on a weekday.

Loretto workers hope the new contract will reduce burnout and curtail the annual staff turnover rate, currently around 60%. In some divisions around the hospital, up to 35% of positions remain vacant, underscoring the state of the hospital’s staffing crisis — as well as concerns about lack of support through low staff-to-patient rates.

“We know we could make more at another hospital, but we stay here because we care about our patients and community,” said Carla Haskins, a Loretto patient care tech and bargaining committee member. “This contract isn’t just a win for us — this is a win for all of Austin. This fight has always been about securing quality health care for Loretto patients and Austin community members — a community we workers belong to ourselves. This contract is a major first step that will help Loretto retain and hire more workers to address the staffing crisis.”

Loretto Hospital leadership said in a statement that it is critical that the hospital “remains open and accessible to the Austin community. We will continue to partner with SEIU, clergy, corporate and community stakeholders to secure the funding and resources needed for the hospital’s long-term growth.”

The workers went on strike July 31, saying that low pay at Loretto has led to short staffing and compromised care for patients. The workers include patient transporters; patient care technicians; emergency room technicians; mental health and behavioral health workers; respiratory and radiology technicians; and those who work in housekeeping, among others.

The hospital previously said in statements to the media that the union’s pay demands were not “sustainable,” given that Loretto is a safety net hospital.

[ Photos: Loretto Hospital workers strike ]

For some Loretto employees, contract disputes have become a matter of gaining dignity and respect in the workplace, Regina Smith, a food service aide, said Thursday.

“We have been working for a very long time under short staffing conditions,” Smith said. “It has impacted the community, and it has impacted the employees of Loretto hospital as a whole.”

To SEIU Healthcare Executive Vice President Erica Bland-Durosinmi, the contract battle represented a failure on the part of Loretto Hospital to invest back in the oldest and most careworn employees of the hospital. Some striking employees have worked at the hospital for more than 20 years.

“There are so many workers who started and then left after a day or a week,” Bland-Durosinmi said at an Aug. 8 news conference.

Mental health challenges are common among Loretto patients, Bland-Durosinmi said. Nurses and staffers feel they are unfairly compensated for the emotional labor that comes with frequently handling patient outbursts and responding to overdoses and schizophrenic episodes.

“The amount that it would cost to do right by these workers is negligible at this point,” Bland-Durosinmi said.

Loretto serves the predominantly Black community of Austin. Over 33,000 patients each year are treated at Loretto. Many are on Medicaid, a state and federally funded health insurance program for people with low incomes and/or disabilities.

Loretto kept its doors open during the strike, though to far fewer patients than usual.

At a Thursday morning vigil, Chicago political and faith leaders called publicly for an end to the strike. Some, like Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., appealed to both sides to reach a resolution in good faith. Others, including Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., chastised Loretto for holding back in negotiations enough to bring the strike into a second week.

“You are the backbone of our critically important health care system,” state Rep. Justin Slaughter told striking workers Thursday, referring to the strike as a protective measure for both workers and Loretto patients. “When you’re understaffed, underpaid, and the working conditions are unsafe, we’re putting everybody’s lives at risk.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who recently stepped down as president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and state Rep. La Shawn Ford, who resigned from Loretto’s board of trustees in 2021, also mobilized in favor of strikers shortly before a final agreement was reached.

[ Can Loretto Hospital rebuild trust? ]

As a safety net hospital, Loretto provides care to patients even if they cannot pay. Last year, 77.5% of Loretto patients were on Medicaid, and 2.20% did not pay for their care at all.

One of 24 safety net hospitals in Illinois, Loretto received just over $1.3 million per month in state funding last year.

The Health Care Council of Chicago found in a 2021 study that safety net hospitals in Chicago are on track to lose at least $1.76 billion in operational funds by 2024.

According to the study’s authors, safety net hospitals lose money when they are not fully reimbursed by the government or insurance companies for procedures done on patients who cannot pay themselves. Medicaid may only reimburse up to 30% of what hospitals might recoup from a private insurance company following an emergency procedure, according to Chicago Policy Review.

Safety net hospitals can also struggle to hire new specialists, which can make it difficult to provide advanced care for elderly and terminally ill patients. In many cases, behavioral health concerns are disproportionately treated at safety net hospitals as compared to other health care facilities.

SEIU is the country’s largest health care workers’ union, with more than 1 million members nationwide and 90,000 in the Midwest.

Staffing levels, contract disputes and patient care concerns have led to multiple health care worker strikes in the Chicago area over the past several years.

In January 2023, 440 workers at Howard Brown Health clinics, represented by the Illinois Nurses Association union. went on a three-day labor strike to protest recent layoffs. Several months later, the National Labor Relations Board found the layoffs to be unfair labor practices, with settlement action between Howard Brown and the INA still pending.

In 2021, more than 900 nurses from Cook County Health went on a one-day strike. Despite a court injunction limiting the size of the strike, many strikers were from Stroger Hospital, forcing the safety net hospital to send ambulances and surgical cases elsewhere.

In July 2020, 720 nurses at Ascension St. Joseph in Joliet went on a two-week strike for a better contract after working without one for five months. Two months later, Illinois Nurses Association members went on a seven-day strike from University of Illinois hospitals, demanding higher staff-to-patient ratios and better personal protection equipment.

Originally Published: Aug 10, 2023 at 7:04 pm