Mapping Care Project: The History of Black Nurses in Chicago

COVID-19

COVID-19 Pandemic & Black Nurses in Unions

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated ongoing crises in the U.S. healthcare system. Nurses have found themselves working in difficult and dangerous conditions, often without sufficient support or with overwhelming nurse-to-patient ratios.1

Black nursing staff who are not licensed nurses, such as certified nursing assistants, have faced unique challenges, receiving low pay and minimal protection while often being the most exposed to COVID-19 due to the intimate care they are obligated to provide. Nurses and other healthcare staff have used unions and labor organizing to pressure employers who they believe prioritize profits over patients. Many healthcare staff have felt frustrated to be called “essential workers,” without receiving the pay or benefits that would truly recognize their work.

In 2020, around 800 nurses (represented by the Illinois Nurses Association) and 3,700 hospital staff (represented by Service Employers International Union, Local 73) in the University of Illinois healthcare system went on strike during a breakdown in contract negotiations.

The nurses were focused on pushing the hospital to provide guarantees in their contract about limits on nurse-to-patient ratios and better personal protective equipment (PPE). Other hospital staff were demanding higher pay, better PPE, and improved staffing ratios in their contracts, so that staff would not have overwhelming workloads. The striking workers made clear that they believed these improvements would benefit their patients, who deserved better.



The coordination between the INA and SEIU Local 73 to pursue collective modes of pressing for improved working conditions and better wages was a huge step towards nurses uniting with other healthcare workers like nursing assistants, medical technicians, and maintenance and dining staff, who are disproportionately Black and Latinx workers.2 These workers play a key role in the day-to-day operations of healthcare facilities but are the bottom of the healthcare hierarchy and are minimally compensated for their work.3

The hospital’s management attempted to block the strike with a court order and then brought in workers from other states to replace the striking workers. Despite this attempt, the nurses remained on strike for a week, while other hospital staff continued to strike for ten days.

The strikes ended with the hospital system agreeing to increase wages, hire additional nurses, and provide a continuous supply of PPE. 4

Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, a Black woman who began her career as a registered nurse declared at the end of the strike that:

“I am so proud of the Black and Brown women who led this strike, who convinced their co-workers striking was worth the risk. They never gave up. They were out there at dawn every day demanding justice for essential workers. UIC called them heroes but their pay and benefits didn’t reflect that, but UIC now understands what it means to be essential.”5

This page has paths:

This page references: