The longest nurses strike in Illinois history and the second longest in the U.S. could end Friday if a tentative contract is ratified at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet.
The proposed settlement between the Illinois Nurses Association and management came Tuesday, on the 58th day of the strike, after a 12-hour bargaining session with a federal mediator.
Both sides claimed victory Wednesday.
“We’re just ecstatic,” said Judy Steed, a 25-year hospital veteran and a member of the negotiating team, shouting to be heard at union headquarters as other nurses and supporters laughed and chatted.
“Going out on strike was probably one of the toughest things I’ve done in my entire life, but everyone I’ve talked to thinks it was worth it.”
Hospital spokesman Tracy Piette called the strike “a difficult and challenging period” and said administrators are eager for St. Joseph to return to normal.
The previous state record for a nurses strike was 38 days at Cook County Hospital in 1976, according to union spokemen. The U.S. record was set in Youngstown, Ohio.
The proposed three-year contract covers patient-care issues, along with economic concerns.
For instance, it includes guidelines on the hospital’s ability to temporarily transfer nurses to areas outside their expertises. The union had complained that pediatric nurses, for example, had been forced to work in psychiatric wards.
Besides hammering out differences on overtime and health insurance, the tentative contract gives nurses across-the-board raises of 3 percent in each of the years.
The contract also comes with a return-to-work agreement that guarantees striking nurses will not be discriminated against when they come back to the hospital. They are scheduled to start returning within five days of union ratification.
If approved, the contract would be the first at St. Joseph. The nurses at the private hospital, and similar hospitals across the country, won the right to join a union in an April 1991 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Eight months after the ruling, St. Joseph nurses became the first at a private hospital to organize. Talks started last May on the hospital’s first collective bargaining agreement with nurses.
After two dozen meetings, the talks hit a roadblock in January. After giving the hospital a 10-day notice, the union went on strike.
Joliet is a union town and has seen its share of strikes. The nurses on the picket line were quickly joined by members of other unions on the daily, often-frosty vigil outside the hospital entrances.
The early days of the strike were marred by several minor skirmishes between pickets and cars, some of them driven by non-striking nurses and others hired from an outside agency.
Tempers quickly cooled. Several weeks ago, leaders of the nurses union dissuaded other labor organizers from holding a rally designed to disrupt hospital operations.
They also enlisted the support of local politicians and held rallies and prayer sessions. Representatives of the nurses and hospital management bought newspaper ads, attended public forums, and appeared on radio talk shows to discuss their differences.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mayor Arthur Schultz. “Thank God it’s over, and everyone from both sides can get back to work.”
As the bargaining-unit nurses vote Friday on ratification, the union plans to hold a group prayer for peace and reconciliation in front of the hospital.
It is the feast day of St. Joseph, the hospital’s namesake and patron saint of the worker.
