By Monday, May 18, it was official: Rush Hospital nurses had won a union! By a count of 1,190 to 350—a resounding 77% “yes” vote—Rush nurses sent a powerful message: workers want to fight for their interests and the best way to fight is through a union.
Across the US, working conditions have worsened for nurses. Chief among these concerns is an epidemic of short staffing. While hospital administrations and their investors fatten their profit margins, understaffing means overworking nurses and a diminishing level of care for patients. Additionally, nurses’ benefits like health coverage, pensions, and professional development have been eroded. As in most industries, nurses’ wages have not kept pace with rising inflation, worsened by Trump’s war on Iran.
These factors inspired nurses at Rush Hospital to fight for union recognition. It took a class struggle approach to win the union recognition vote, and it will take a class struggle approach to win the contract battle. A group of committed nurses, including a member of Socialist Alternative, led this fight by organizing serious, consistent discussions with coworkers in every department about the need for a union to fight together for their common interests. This initiative was crucial, especially given the top-down, extremely protracted approach by the officials and staffers from National Nurses United, the union organizing the drive.
This same bottom-up approach to organizing their coworkers—with a clear understanding that it’s them versus the administrators—will be needed to overcome the bosses, who will do everything they can to undermine and avoid a contract, including paying a union-busting firm to spread lies and intimidation. But these new union nurses know better: solidarity and struggle, and striking if necessary, is the prescription to cure their billionaire exploitation.
Because Rush is a large nursing school, it has connections to ALL other Chicago-area hospitals. This union victory is big news and will start plenty of discussions among nurses at other hospitals. If all nurses are understaffed and underpaid, then all nurses need a union!
While the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to gut and crush unions, there is a broad pro-union mood in society—polling that shows 68% favorability toward unions, and even higher among young Americans. Union leaderships need to go all in and coordinate resources to organize the unorganized on a mass scale.
If union leaderships don’t step up with fighting strategies and resources, then workers will have to take the lead and win strong contracts despite them. In Chicago, it is the Rush nurses leading the way!