{"id":574830,"date":"2026-04-09T23:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574830\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T23:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:37:08","slug":"rush-medical-center-nurses-petition-to-form-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574830\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush Medical Center nurses petition to form union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wearing bright red shirts and scrubs, a crowd of Rush University Medical Center nurses gathered Thursday in the heart of Chicago\u2019s medical district to declare their efforts to form a union.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the nurses,\u201d they chanted as motorists drove by and honked in support. \u201cFighting for our patients, fighting for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nurses, who would be represented by National Nurses United, filed a petition Wednesday to hold a union election, one of the first steps to formally form a union and bargain for a contract. They held a rally outside Rush Medical Center on the Near West Side Thursday, joined by other area nurses, labor leaders and local politicians urging the hospital to cooperate with a speedy election.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong live the union,\u201d Don Villar, of the Chicago Federation of Labor, said in Tagalog to the crowd. He shared how Rush nurses helped his late wife when she was treated there for cancer.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Rush said it was aware of the petition and would discuss it with the nursing team over the next \u201cseveral weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Rush, one of our greatest strengths is the way nurses, leaders and care teams work together as colleagues \u2014 raising concerns, addressing challenges and making improvements \u2014 directly and transparently. The most successful models for the delivery of health care empower individuals to raise issues in real time and to have them addressed at the department level,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Rush and the union did not specify how many nurses would be eligible to vote for a union but the National Labor Relations Board stated the number was 1,700, and information indicated the unit would include full-time, part-time and per diem registered nurses. A date for the election has not been set.<\/p>\n

If the nurses are successful, they will join more than 6,500 unionized nurses in Chicago area hospitals already represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United. Other nurses work at Cook County Health, the University of Chicago Medicine and the Jesse Brown Veterans Administration Medical Center.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Kira Pilatejean (second from right), an orthopedic nurse, raises her fist during the rally outside Rush University Medical Center on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kira Pilatejean, a Rush nurse and union unit leader, said she was excited to be part of a wave of unionization taking place among nurses across the country in places like California, Michigan and Iowa. She said a union would help prevent burnout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just protections for us, for our patients to make sure that we stay because I think everybody here loves their job,\u201d Pilatejean said. \u201cWe want to stay at our job, and that\u2019s our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many nurses at Thursday\u2019s rally stressed that their efforts are tied to patient safety, saying they need to be involved in conversations around staffing ratios and retention.<\/p>\n

Keeley Binion, who has worked at Rush for 40 years, said the union was important not just for current nurses but for those who will one day work at the hospital. Speaking to the crowd, Binion urged Rush management to partner with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to recognize and respect our rights and patient\u2019s rights and let us have a seat at the table. Let me correct that \u2014 we will demand a seat at the table,\u201d Binion said as the crowd cheered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wearing bright red shirts and scrubs, a crowd of Rush University Medical Center nurses gathered Thursday in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-574830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}