About 200 advanced practice registered nurses, physician assistants and midwives at UI Health could walk off the job as early as next week after delivering a 10-day strike notice, though no strike date has been formally set. The providers, represented by SEIU Local 73, say they'd prefer to settle the long-running dispute through mediation rather than hit the picket line.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the providers could strike as soon as Nov. 10, pending the outcome of mediation talks. Local 73 President Dian Palmer called the move serious, saying, “this is a serious step, and it is not one our members take lightly.” Palmer added that the union would rather resolve the standoff at the bargaining table, stating, “We would much rather settle this at the table than on a picket line.” UI Health did not immediately provide comment when the Tribune reached out Monday.
The providers, who work at University of Illinois Hospital and some of the health system's clinics, say the dispute traces back to a pay disparity this summer. Per the same account, University of Illinois workers were given 2% raises in August, but the advanced practice providers were left out. SEIU Local 73 has said that raise took effect August 16, with every campus worker receiving it except the roughly 200 unionized APPs.
A Yearlong Fight Over Union Recognition
The pay dispute is tangled up with a separate, longer battle over whether the union can even bargain on the providers' behalf. SEIU Local 73 and the University of Illinois have been fighting for more than a year over that question, the Tribune reports. The providers won certification of their union from the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in 2025, but the University of Illinois board of trustees has challenged that certification ever since.
That fight escalated when the 4th District Appellate Court in Springfield agreed to put bargaining on hold while the university's appeal of the certification proceeds. SEIU Local 73 then appealed that stay to the Illinois Supreme Court, which denied the union's appeal, according to the union.
Months Of Talks Before The Stay
Before bargaining was frozen, the two sides had actually made headway. SEIU Local 73 has said the providers and the university bargained from January through June 2026, reaching several tentative agreements and exchanging economic proposals before the stay halted talks. The union has also said those sessions produced tentative agreements on nearly all non-economic provisions.
Frustration over the stalled process spilled into public view two months before the strike notice. Advanced practice providers at UI Health held informational pickets outside the hospital on September 8, demanding the university recognize their union and return to the bargaining table.
Part Of A Bigger Pattern At UIC
This isn't the first time SEIU Local 73 has squared off with the University of Illinois system over a strike threat. The university's own news site, today.uic.edu, has reported that SEIU Local 73 filed a separate ten-day notice of intent to strike covering a much larger bargaining unit of 4,000 clerical, service and maintenance, technical, and professional employees, with a potential work stoppage that could begin no sooner than September 14. The notice was announced Sept. 3, 2020, and the page describes a federal mediator helping guide ongoing contract negotiations between UIC and the union.
Healthcare labor disputes have been a major driver of work stoppages nationally. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that 30 major work stoppages began in 2025, idling 306,800 workers, with the education and health services sector accounting for 196,500 of those idled workers — 64% of the total, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For now, the central question for UI Health patients and staff is whether mediation can produce a deal before Nov. 10. The union has signaled it wants a settlement, not a walkout, but with no date yet confirmed and a yearlong certification fight still unresolved, the standoff remains very much open.
