Dozens of healthcare workers walked out of Howard Brown Health Clinics Tuesday morning in the beginning of a two-day strike as employees demand affordable healthcare and job security.
Additionally, workers are demanding a baseline $20 per hour, an increase over the current mark of $16 per hour.
“There’s lots of issues at Howard Brown and the staff are trying to fix them, but leadership doesn’t want to work with us," Louis Spraggins, a partner services coordinator who is part of the bargaining team told NBC Chicago. "We’re asking for affordable healthcare, we’re asking for fair pay, we’re asking for a little bit of job security, or at least a little consideration if you’re going to lay us off."
In addition to a push for increased pay and better benefits, the final straw for striking employees was a change to patient visit times.
“So instead of having 40 minutes for things like pap smears, or hormone treatment, or return to care after a year and a half, people are being given 20-minute visits," Spraggins said. "Providers are telling them that this is not enough time to give patients the appropriate care.”
Howard Brown Health's Chief Operating Officer Steven Glass said they gave the union a final contract offer, which included increasing pay to $19.23 an hour.
"We have given them a final offer we believe is fair and equitable and provides the support and the scope of work needed to serve our patients," he said. "We will see what happens at the negotiation table, we have made our commitment to achieving this next contract known to our union partners and community, and we are ready to do what we need to do to make that happen.”
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The strike ends on Thursday, and they return to the bargaining table next week.
Howard Brown Health says they have a contingency plan in place during the strike to ensure all patients are seen.
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