Last Friday, approximately 350 healthcare and retail workers at Howard Brown Health in Chicago, voted for a potential strike. This would be the second strike in less than a year at Howard Brown Health. The vote follows ongoing negotiations over a first contract, which the newly-formed union has been negotiating for over a year.
The Illinois Nurses Association, the largest nurses union in the state, represents the registered nurses at Howard Brown Health. In case the strike occurs, projections from a Howard Brown Health spokesperson indicate, it will last two days. Union members are calling for full-time employment for Brown Elephant retail workers, adjustments for cost of living in salaries, and provisions for gender-affirming healthcare in the employee health insurance scheme.
The Howard Brown Health Workers United union has expressed worrying disparities in wages and issues around racial equity, alongside the provision of gender-affirming care. Management at the company recently increased the wage offer for hourly workers to $19.23 per hour. Yet union-led salary transparency studies found a notable gap in pay between employees in the organization's North Side and South Side clinics, with staff at the latter earning up to $5,000 less per year.
Speaking of the unsatisfactory provision of gender-affirming care for employees, Claire Gilbertsen, an events specialist at Howard Brown Health and union bargaining committee member, stated: "What you’re providing to the community, you have to be able to provide that to your workforce as well."
Despite being the biggest LGBTQ-focused healthcare provider in the Midwest, its employees have often found it difficult to access gender-affirming care through their employee healthcare plan. High deductibles have led some employees, especially those working part-time at Brown Elephant retail locations, to opt out of the scheme entirely.
The union followers faced adversarial behavior from the management in the past. In January, more than 400 workers participated in a strike, followed by the layoff of 61 unionized employees by the management. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling in July mandated the reinstatement of these workers with back pay, as it found Howard Brown Health guilty of bad faith bargaining during contract negotiations.
One of the workers who chose to return, Gilbertsen, claims she was retaliated against for speaking up about the union. Following this, several employees are suffering from the financial aftermath of the January layoffs. When it came to reduction strategies, management eliminated COVID-specific positions and downsized its behavioral health and social services programming team to fill a $12 million revenue shortfall, confirmed a spokesperson for Howard Brown Health.
The union is planning a rally to build the strike fund in the wake of the strike vote. It will take place outside the Howard Brown Health Halsted clinic on Thursday evening. While the strike will mean unpaid leave for workers, the longevity of the strike depends upon the growth of the strike fund in the coming days.
