RNs ready to rally outside of Stroger Hospital

Registered nurses at Cook County Health’s Stroger Hospital in Chicago, Ill. will hold an action on Friday, Dec. 9 to protest management’s targeting of three top nurse leaders for protected union activities instead of improving patient care by developing its permanent nursing workforce, said National Nurses Organizing Committee, the union representing Cook County nurses. Nurses also announced that they will be filing a formal complaint over this issue, called an unfair labor practice charge (ULP), with the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

“Cook County Health needs to get its priorities straight. I can’t believe management is spending precious taxpayer dollars investigating me for speaking up for workers instead of devoting its time, energy, and resources to building our permanent nursing staff so that we can best take care of our patients,” said Falguni Dave, a longtime county nurse who made extreme personal sacrifices to care for Covid patients during the height of the pandemic. “Our staffing crisis is the real problem here.”

• Who: RNs at John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County Health
• What: Speakout in support of nurses and safe staffing for patient safety
• When: Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, NOON 12 p.m.
• Where: Stroger Hospital, 1969 W. Ogden Ave. Chicago, IL, 60612 (corner of Damen and Ogden in front of the emergency department)

Nurses will be available to speak with media at the event.

Nurses say that the county is wasting tens of millions of dollars annually paying for temporary nurses when that money could be invested in hiring permanent nursing staff from the community at a fraction of the cost.

NNOC/NNU represents more than 1,000 registered nurses throughout the Cook County Health system.

National Nurses Organizing Committee is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with nearly 225,000 members nationwide.