Nurses at two Chicago-area hospitals are taking industrial action on Thursday, September 3, amid a dispute over staffing, contract negotiations and plans to move maternity services between facilities operated by Prime Healthcare.
Registered nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital on Chicago’s West Side began a 24-hour strike at 7am local time. They are seeking their first collective agreement after unionising in June and say excessive patient assignments are making it difficult to provide safe care.
A further action was scheduled at Olympia Fields Hospital in the southern suburbs from 2pm. Nurses there have raised similar concerns about staffing and supplies, while the union has accused Prime of suspending six nurses for taking part in organising activities. Prime has not accepted those allegations.
Chicago nurses strike over staffing and maternity care
The walkouts come days after Prime announced that obstetrics services would end at Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, St Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and Mercy Medical Center in Aurora from October 1.
The healthcare group plans to concentrate maternity care at Saint Mary of Nazareth and Olympia Fields. It said the three hospitals losing the service had fewer than one delivery a day and that financial pressures, ownership changes and falling birth rates had made the existing arrangement unsustainable.
Prime said it would offer affected employees positions elsewhere within its hospital network. It also announced plans to invest $1 million in community maternal-health grants, including initiatives intended to improve access to prenatal and postnatal care.
Dr Devyani Chawla, director of the birthing centre at Saint Mary of Nazareth, said concentrating services at established centres would support quality and patient safety while addressing disparities in maternal health.
However, the changes have drawn criticism from nurses and public officials. US Representative Lauren Underwood, a registered nurse whose district includes Mercy Medical Center, said Prime had not adequately prepared for what she described as “speedy closures”.
She said the company had not set out plans to help women travel for care and had relied on arrangements with other hospitals that, according to her, were not all in place.
Prime said the one-day actions would not affect patient care and that both hospitals would remain open. The company also said it was concerned that nurses had chosen to strike before the two sides had begun exchanging contract proposals.
The National Nurses Organising Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United, said nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth were striking over safe staffing, patient-care concerns and what it called retaliation against nurse advocates. The National Labor Relations Board lists an open case involving allegations of denial of access, coercive rules and a refusal to bargain in good faith at the Chicago hospital.
Prime took over several former Ascension Illinois hospitals in 2025. The dispute at Saint Mary of Nazareth follows an earlier one-day strike in June after six nurses were dismissed, according to the union.
