(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Medical support staff for Howard Brown Health were in the first day of a two-day strike over contract negotiations with the clinic system.
Worker Louis Spraggins said the organization’s pay raise offer is less than the rate of inflation.
“The things that we’re asking for are very simple and they are affordable, more than affordable by our organization,” he said at a Tuesday news conference outside the Howard Brown Health facility at 641 W. 63rd Street in the Englewood community.
Sarah Hurd, an organizer for the Illinois Nurses Association, said the most recent bargaining session was last week. It was then that Howard Brown Health offered – according to her -- its last, best and final offer.
“We don’t believe that’s the best they can do,” Hurd said.
Howard Brown Health says their new contract proposal includes a new living wage for all staff, transparency of pay, comprehensive insurance for part-time workers and a reworked disciplinary system.
Spraggins, meanwhile, says there’s also a big disparity between the organization’s North Side and South Side locations, with the South Side facilities getting the short end of the stick.
“All of these buildings are in disrepair. We have issues like vermin, rats, bugs, brown running water,” he said.
Patient care continues at Howard Brown’s North and South Side locations because nurses are in a separate bargaining unit than the one looking for its first contract and whose workers are on strike. The latter group is comprised of several types of employees, including therapists and nurse practitioners, Hurd said.
Howard Brown Health says patients who have appointments are still being seen during the strike. The organization says its contract offer commits the non-profit to invest an additional $5 million in its workforce over two years.
Howard Brown workers plan a rally Wednesday evening outside the Lakeview clinic on Halsted.
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