Nurses on strike at Ascension St. Joseph Hospital in Joliet will return to work Saturday morning as a four-day walkout for increased wages and higher staffing concludes.

The strike was initially planned for two days by the Illinois Nurses’ Union. After a strike was announced, Ascension announced a four-day lockout of union nurses. Ascension has said in news releases that the hospital group is contractually obligated to replace nurses for at least four days during any sort of strike action.

More than 500 nurses picketed outside the hospital this week. Some shared their concerns about staff retention and working conditions at St. Joseph, which is Joliet’s only major hospital.

Some striking nurses attempted to return to work Thursday morning, at the end of the original two-day strike period. Video footage provided by the union shows that nurses were turned away at the door by armed security guards.

Ascension brought in privately contracted nurses to cover the work of striking nurses from Tuesday through Friday. The union estimates each replacement nurse was paid around $7,000, plus food, travel and lodging.

Vera Appiah-Dankwah, who has worked as a nurse at St. Joseph for 12 years, told the Joliet City Council that scab nurses’ pay this week was more than she makes in a month.

Many nurses are returning to work in low spirits, extremely worried about the standard of care which fragile patients received in their absence, said nurse Janet Nonog.

Nonog has worked on the hospital’s rehabilitation floor for 20 years. She said she’s especially concerned that elderly patients may have suffered during the strike.

“That’s on my conscience,” Nonog said.

Many nurses feel torn, Nonog said, between concerns about the state of their patients and conviction that the strike was necessary. She called on Joliet residents to continue advocating on behalf of the nurses as they return to work.

“St. Joseph won’t listen to us, but we want to do what’s right,” Nonog said. “I have to protect our community here. I need to do something.”

The strike came about amid tense contract negotiations between the union and Ascension, which have been going on since May. Nurses’ complaints with Ascension proposals for a new contract include the idea of planned raises decreasing over years of service.

The hospital’s suggestion fails to offer competitive raises to retain those who have worked at the hospital for decades, nurses told the Chicago Tribune earlier this week.

Ascension canceled a bargaining meeting on Aug. 15, the day after the strike was announced, and has said it will not return to the table until Sept. 8. This bargaining timeline has not changed as a result of the strike.

In a statement to the Chicago Tribune this week, Ascension called the strike disheartening” and said the hospital would remain open during the strike. The hospital also said it would continue to negotiate in good faith.

Ascension, the largest Catholic and nonprofit hospital chain in the nation, acquired St. Joseph in 2018. About 350 nurses have left the hospital since, including 120 who worked in the intensive care unit.

Strikes also accompanied contract negotiations with Ascension in 2020, and a 61-day strike preceded the first union contract for St. Joseph nurses in 1993.

Throughout the strike and broader contract negotiations, the Illinois Nurses Association has been working with local political leaders including Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy, state Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, state Rep. Lawrence Walsh Jr., D-Joliet, and state Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Romeoville.

On the picket line, strikers were also joined by state Sen. Meg Cappel, D-Shorewood and State Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville.

At a Joliet City Council meeting this month, D’Arcy criticized Ascension for pushing what he described as a profit-driven agenda rather than approaching contract negotiations in good faith.

During the four days of the strike, nurses at Ascension hospitals in Michigan and Texas also reached out with messages of solidarity.

A closing rally at 5:30 p.m. Friday will mark the end of the four-day picket.

Joliet is about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.