Nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago returned to work today following their one-day strike against Prime Healthcare’s illegal firings of six nurses.

After hundreds took to the strike line on June 11, nurses are back at the bedside ahead of next week’s election to join National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), the country’s largest nurses union.

“We’re glad to be back at work taking care of our patients,” said Brenda Hernandez, RN in the ICU. “Yesterday’s strike was incredibly powerful. We still need Prime to reinstate our co-workers. In the meantime, we’re going to keep building momentum to our election next Wednesday.”

In recent weeks, six nurses at Saint Mary’s were already unlawfully terminated. Nurses held their one-day strike this week to protest the illegal firings of their co-workers, who were punished for participating in protected union activity.

Prime has also illegally fired two nurses at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada.

If nurses vote to certify their union on June 17, more than 400 registered nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth in Chicago would be represented by NNOC/NNU.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.