Nurses at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago voted overwhelmingly to form a union, weeks after six colleagues were fired as they prepared to unionize. The vote followed a one-day strike by nurses at the Ukrainian Village hospital and comes amid mounting
For the third time in weeks, the moment felt like a test of what would come next: whether nurses at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago could organize without retaliation.
On Wednesday. nearly every eligible nurse cast a ballot. and about 96% voted in favor of being represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee. an affiliate of the National Nurses United. The hospital. located in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood. has about 400 nurses eligible to be part of the union. figures listed on the National Labor Relations Board’s website show.
The union vote landed after a week of pressure that started with something unmistakable: a one-day strike. Nurses at the hospital held that strike to call on hospital officials to reinstate six nurses fired just as the group was preparing to unionize in recent weeks.
The nurses and the union allege those firings were tied to union organizing, while nurses said they had also raised concerns about deteriorating conditions inside the hospital.
In a statement, St. Mary’s said it respects the outcome of Wednesday’s vote and was committed to bargaining in good faith with the union. Prime Healthcare, a large national for-profit hospital network, acquired the hospital and several other Chicago-area hospitals last year, and St. Mary’s message carried that context. “While we remain concerned about the financial impact of this decision on an already strained hospital system. we support our nurses in their choice to be represented by the National Nurses Union. We look forward to a productive working relationship focused on our shared commitment to delivering high-quality. compassionate care and long-term stability for the communities that need it most. ” the hospital said in an email statement.
During their campaign to unionize, nurses voiced concerns that staffing shortages were putting patient safety at risk and that the hospital was using cheaper supplies. The National Nurses Organizing Committee is still calling for the six fired nurses to be reinstated.
“We’re so excited to join NNOC because we know we’ll be able to win the kind of contract that will be a gamechanger for our patients and for us as nurses,” said Anna Bilanicz, a St. Mary’s nurse, in a statement.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee represents thousands of other nurses across the Chicago area. including at the University of Chicago Medicine. Cook County Health and the Jesse Brown Veterans Administration Medical Center. In May, nurses at Rush University Medical Center also voted in favor of a union under the NNOC umbrella.
This week’s vote is part of a broader push in Chicago. Nurses at Evanston, Skokie, Glenbrook and Highland Park hospitals—each part of Endeavor Health—started openly unionizing this spring.
The sequence now puts St. Mary’s at a crossroads: the union vote is the clearest sign yet that nurses are ready to negotiate, but the unresolved question remains what happens to the six colleagues who were fired as the drive for union representation began to take shape.
St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Chicago nurses union vote National Nurses Organizing Committee National Nurses United Prime Healthcare Ukrainian Village hospital nurse strike reinstatement