Nurses at the University of Chicago Medical Center voted Tuesday to ratify a new, four-year contract after concluding months of negotiations over the weekend that avoided a pre-Thanksgiving strike.
The 2,200 nurses, who are members of the union National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, had been without a contract since April.
The hospital had said a main sticking point in negotiations was whether new hires should get incentive pay, which is a higher rate of pay for hours worked beyond a certain amount each week. The union had said it was holding out over problems with staffing.
The new contract addresses both issues. It rolls incentive pay into nurses’ base pay, including for new hires, said Pam Valentine, a nurse who works in the post-anesthesia recovery unit. Nurses will get raises of 11% to 22% over the next four years, the union said in a news release.
The contract also ensures that in 20 units, charge nurses, who supervise other nurses, will not be assigned patients, ensuring they have time to assist other nurses, the union said.
The hospital also will keep intact a 24-person team of patient care support nurses, who mentor younger nurses and help patients with complex needs. The hospital had proposed moving those nurses into other nursing positions at the hospital.
The hospital has also agreed to add “float nurses” in clinics areas, the union said.
“These important staffing changes will help nurses provide the highest quality of patient care at UCMC,” Terri Collins, a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit, said in a news release.
Hospital leaders sent a message to faculty, staff, students and residents Tuesday night saying the contract “reflects our collective commitment to our mission of serving patients and the community.”
In September, the nurses went on a one-day strike and were locked out of their jobs four additional days when the hospital said it needed to guarantee a certain number of hours to replacement nurses. The nurses had been set to strike again Tuesday but canceled that strike after reaching the tentative agreement.
During the September strike, the hospital asked ambulances to take new patients elsewhere and moved babies and children in its intensive care units to other hospitals. The hospital had started taking similar actions last week in preparation for the second strike, which was called off Saturday.
The agreement will likely influence future negotiations between other hospitals and nurses, said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
That’s especially true because many parts of the agreement focus on staffing, which is a common concern for nurses across the country, he said.
“Places like Chicago are going to become bellwethers for other large metropolitan areas,” Bruno said. “What gets negotiated here will become a target for other nursing unions to also reach for.”
The National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United also represents nurses at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Stroger Hospital, Provident Hospital, Jackson Park Hospital, the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital in Hines.