Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesus \u201cChuy\u201d Garcia is calling for Endeavor Health to reinstate two Evanston Hospital nurses who were fired, allegedly, for trying to unionize.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s illegal for most private employers, including hospitals, to penalize workers for forming a union, according to the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency that protects the right to organize.<\/p>\n
Nurses at Evanston, Skokie, Glenbrook and Highland Park hospitals, which are part of Endeavor Health, started openly unionizing<\/a> this spring.<\/p>\n In a June 2 letter obtained by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, Garcia urged Endeavor CEO Gerald Gallagher to refrain from intimidating or retaliating against nearly 3,000 nurses who are working to unionize<\/a> with the Teamsters Local 743 over pay cuts and what they say are unsafe working conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cAll workers should have the free and fair choice to join a union,\u201d wrote Garcia, who has progressive organizing roots. \u201cEndeavor must stop its unfair labor practices, reinstate the two terminated nurses from Evanston Hospital, and respect workers\u2019 right to form a union, free of intimidation, retaliation, and other forms of illegal interference.\u201d<\/p>\n Endeavor is one of the biggest hospital systems in the Chicago area, treating more than 1 million patients a year and employing more than 27,000 people, according to the health system.<\/p>\n The not-for-profit hospital operator had about $6.4 billion in revenue in 2025. <\/p>\n Nurses have cited pay cuts of $5 to $22 an hour and \u201csevere understaffing as contributing to a stressful work environment,\u201d Garcia wrote, citing WBEZ\/Sun-Times reporting. The pay cuts have come as some executives receive bonuses, records show.<\/p>\n Gallagher made just over $5 million<\/a> in 2024, including a $1.4 million bonus, as well as retirement and other \u201cdeferred\u201d compensation, Endeavor\u2019s most recent tax return shows. That year, the health system had a $494 million operating loss, much of it from legal settlements<\/a>, an audited financial statement<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n Three charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Endeavor since March, Garcia said in the letter. They include accusations of retaliation or disciplinary action against workers \u201cengaged in protected concerted activities\u201d and putting them under surveillance.<\/p>\n An Endeavor spokesperson said the health system carefully reviews \u201ceach individual employment action to ensure compliance with all applicable laws. We fully respect the federally protected rights of our nurses to engage and make an informed choice about union representation. While respecting these rights, we must prioritize the safety, privacy and care of our patients and team members and maintain consistent enforcement of our workplace policies.\u201d<\/p>\n The unionizing effort has included Endeavor\u2019s legacy hospitals in the suburbs \u2014 Evanston, Skokie, Glenbrook and Highland Park hospitals, according to Tricia Poreda, one of the Endeavor nurses leading organizing efforts. Those hospitals were part of the system when it was known as NorthShore University HealthSystem, before it grew through mergers. The goal is to organize nurses across Endeavor, Poreda said.<\/p>\n The two nurses who were fired in May were experienced senior nurses in the intensive-care unit at Evanston Hospital, according to Poreda, who said they were dropping off gift bags with union information to nurses in the hospital and identified themselves to security employees inside. After working their roughly 12-hour night shifts, they were suspended without pay, then fired for allegedly misrepresenting themselves for wearing their work badges and scrubs while also wearing a union T-shirt, Poreda said.<\/p>\n The firings have galvanized nurses, according to Poreda. She said many used to be afraid even to talk about forming a union but now have started a petition that about 1,000 people have signed to get their fired colleagues back to work.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a movement to reincite that fear and control, and it\u2019s really had the opposite effect,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just made nurses even more upset and more driven.\u201d<\/p>\n Kristen Schorsch covers the health of the region for WBEZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesus \u201cChuy\u201d Garcia is calling for Endeavor Health to reinstate two Evanston Hospital nurses who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-475194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}