On the Heels of Advocate Aurora Health’s Decision to Pay $15 an Hour by 2021, Hospital Workers Demand a $15 Starting Wage Starting Now and the Right to Join a Union Across the Entire Hospital Industry

When:

Thursday, December 13^th, 2018, Noon

 

Where:

Outside the Illinois Hospital Association (IHA)

222 South Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606

 

What: Press Conference and Protest

Hospital service workers from across Chicago will hold a press conference outside the Illinois Hospital Association’s (IHA) downtown office to challenge hospital CEOs of wealthy health systems to live on poverty wages of $13 an hour during the holiday season.   (A major study from researchers at the University of Illinois found that at least 22,000 hospital workers earn $13 an hour or less in Illinois, and an estimated 30,000 hospital workers earn below $15 an hour).

 

The hospital CEOs in Chicago that are being challenged to live on $13 an hour are:

1) Anthony R. Tersigni, EdD, CEO of Ascension (the parent company of AMITA Health which also merged with Presence Health);

 

2) Mark Frey, CEO of AMITA Health;

 

3) Jim Skogsbergh, CEO of Advocate Aurora Health;

 

4) Dean Harrison, CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare.

 

Hospital workers will hold up signs of the hospital CEOs listed above with their salaries and compare them with the poverty wages of average hospital service workers. Workers will also highlight how the hospital industry continues to make billions of dollars every year but still refuses to pay healthcare workers a living wage and actively suppresses workers from being able to join a union to have a real voice on the job. Hospitals are some of the largest poverty employers across the entire Chicago region.

 

Who:

Hospital service workers from across Chicago, including workers from Northwestern Memorial Hospital

State Representative Elect Aaron Ortiz, 1^st District

State Representative Elect Delia Ramirez, 4^th District

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, 1^st District

 

Why:

After Advocate Aurora Health announced it would pay its workforce $15 an hour by 2021, hospital workers are demanding a $15 starting wage now and the right for workers to join a Union to raise wages and standards across the entire hospital industry. As the 10^th largest non-profit health system in the country, with billions in annual revenue, Advocate Aurora Health has the money to pay $15 an hour immediately.

 

Hospital workers stated that they should not have to wait up to four years until to 2021 just to have some level of economic security while the hospital industry is awash with money and refuses to pay living wages because of their greed.

 

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