06/12/2026
UKRAINIAN VILLAGE — Nurses at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital began a one-day strike Thursday over allegations of unsafe conditions and union busting by the facility’s parent company, Prime Healthcare.
More than 100 nurses and other supporters gathered to picket about 7 a.m. Thursday outside the hospital, 2233 W. Division St. The strike is expected to last until Friday morning.
The picketers held signs that read “Patients Over Profit” and “Cuts Cost Lives” and chanted slogans to the beat of a drum.
Among them were several nurses who said they were fired in recent months for speaking up about unsafe hospital conditions and working to form a union since Prime Healthcare took over the facility in early 2025. At least six nurses were terminated in May in what union organizers said was a retaliatory move by the hospital.
Nancy Delgado said she worked at St. Mary’s for seven years until she was fired in late May, allegedly for trespassing on company property.
Delgado said that allegation was “100 percent an excuse” to fire her for union activity, which came on top of months of complaints about short staffing and a lack of medical supplies and materials since Prime took over the hospital last year.
Delgado on Thursday called the firings “completely illegal and unfair.” The nurses are demanding the six fired employees be reinstated at the hospital and that Prime provide better staffing and supplies.
“We love our community here in this hospital, and of course we want to provide the best care possible, but when they tied our hands, when they removed the medications, when they remove patient safety by removing monitors, where we cannot scan the patients on the bedside … that’s unacceptable,” Delgado said.
St. Mary’s nurses filed for a union election on May 20 with the National Labor Relations Board and hope to unionize with National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United. Nurses held a previous rally outside the hospital late last month before giving a 10-day notice for Thursday’s strike.
Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org
6/11/26
for Block Club Chicago with Quinn Myers
