Howard Brown Health nurses vote to authorize strike
Howard Brown Health, the Midwest's largest LGBTQ+-focused health network, could soon face a nurses' strike.
The Illinois Nurses Association, which represents Howard Brown's 32 registered nurses, said its members voted unanimously to authorize a strike.
They said they will give Howard Brown 10 days' notice if they move forward.
The nurses have been working without a contract for nearly a month, and both sides remain far apart on wages and staffing issues.
"I only have two hands, but management expects me to have six," Maya Crawford, a Howard Brown Health nurse who works at the organization's 63rd Street clinic, said in a news release. "For a year I covered the work of three nurses, picking up shifts, managing meds, charting, scheduling, and endless tasks—when I should be focusing on patients, not paperwork."
Howard Brown said it has continued to honor the terms of the contract that expired Aug. 10, even amid rising operational costs, federal funding changes, and Medicaid reimbursement reductions.
"Howard Brown Health has offered wage increases that outpace inflation and reflect a meaningful investment in our nurses, as well as health insurance that mirrors what our other union employees receive," a spokesperson wrote in a statement. "We have made every effort to be responsive to the INA's top priorities, and we believe our latest proposal is very favorable to the nurses' union and market competitive, without threatening the long-term sustainability of our organization."
Staff represented by the Illinois Nurses Association at Howard Brown Health staged a strike for three days in January 2023, and then for two days in November 2023.
Two of Howard Brown Health's 10 Chicago clinics shut down in 2024.