About 200 Loretto Hospital workers went on strike Monday, saying the hospital’s low pay has led to staffing shortages that are affecting patient care.

The workers are represented by the union SEIU Healthcare Illinois and 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.

Workers clad in purple shirts that read “Respect Us, Pay Us, Staff Us” marched in front the hospital Monday morning, chanting and carrying signs. The strike will last until an agreement is reached, said Anne Igoe, vice president of hospitals for SEIU Healthcare Illinois.

Loretto is a safety-net hospital in the predominantly Black community of Austin. Many of its patients are on Medicaid, a state and federally funded health insurance program for people with low incomes and/or disabilities.

Union leaders say workers are striking after hospital management failed to address wages and unsafe staffing levels. Workers also want Juneteenth as a holiday. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, celebrating Black slaves being freed in Texas after the Civil War ended.

Loretto Hospital said in a statement Monday that it bargained all weekend, until late Sunday night, but “was not able to reach an equitable and sustainable agreement.”

The hospital said the SEIU is asking for 20% wage increases for some job classifications, when longevity is included.

“If union members strike at 7:00am, it is solely because the SEIU wants impractical first year wage increases,” Loretto said in the statement early Monday morning. “The strike will be about money, not patient safety. … The SEIU’s demands far exceed the hospital’s current economic reality and eliminates our ability to provide wage equity for all hospital employees, including union and non-union.”

The hospital said in a previous statement it has offered two additional paid personal days to union members that they can use for Juneteenth if they choose.

Igoe, however, said workers at Loretto make less than those at other safety net hospitals, so a substantial raise is needed.

“These workers worked through record inflation in the past two years … We want to bring them on par with what we consider the market to be,” she said.

She said the hospital has brought in additional temporary workers to take the place of union workers during the strike. The money spent on those workers could have instead covered the raises requested by the SEIU, she said.

Of Juneteenth, she said, “We think it’s important to treat holidays, especially holidays that have to do with abolishment of slavery in this country, as holidays, not personal days.”

Because of low pay, about 25% of non-nurse and non-doctor positions across the hospital are vacant, said Greg Kelley, president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois. That has led to less time for patients and sometimes unsafe conditions, workers say.

Lynda Robinson, a mental health specialist at Loretto said staff deal with violent patients every day. The staff shortage has meant more violence and injuries, she said during a news conference last week.

“We don’t have the staff to accommodate them, so then, of course, the violence has increased,” Robinson said. “They come in one way and some of them leave the same way, unfortunately … I’d like to see staffing increased so this wouldn’t happen.”

Loretto could attract and retain more workers by raising pay significantly, said Yolanda McPhearson, lead crisis worker at Loretto.

McPhearson and her co-workers used to spend 35 to 40 minutes with patients, doing assessments when they arrived in the ER. Now, those assessments are closer to 10 or 15 minutes, she said.

”We’re not giving them the attention they need so they can get the help they need,” she said.