An Illinois nurses' union filed a complaint against a hospital and its owner over failure to pay an alleged incentive payment promised to nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The petition to compel arbitration and complaint for declaratory relief was filed on Monday in the eastern division of the Northern Illinois District Court by the Illinois Nursing Association St. Joseph Medical Center – Joliet; its former owner, Ascension Healthcare Alliance; and the hospital's current owner, Prime Healthcare Illinois Medical Group.
Why It Matters
The union is asking the court to compel these health systems to fulfill their responsibility under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the union to pay out a bonus promised during a health care emergency.
According to the complaint, the hospital was dealing with nurse attrition and increased patient admissions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, Ascension CEO Keith Parrott promised in a staff-wide email to give nurses a one-time bonus payment.
The email said the pay incentive was one among various “ways we are addressing staffing challenges” and was intended as an incentive for nurses to remain working at the hospital during a health care emergency, according to the complaint.
When inquiring about when they would receive the payment, union staff were told they would receive less money than was promised. Later, the staff discovered that non-union members were receiving the incentive pay but union members were not. And eventually, the hospital refused to pay union members any amount.
What To Know
Between 2020 and 2024, the union and St. Joseph Medical Center were part of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the hundreds of nurses in the union who worked at that location.
Ascension Healthcare Alliance, known as AMITA Health at the time, was the owner of the hospital from 2020 to 2025. The hospital is now part of Prime Healthcare's network.
The union is asking the court to enforce a section in the agreement that states that the hospital will “take reasonable action necessary to maintain adequate staffing levels” amid a health care emergency that causes a change in the number of patients on any unit. This includes making unilateral changes to pay and benefits programs to assist in staffing efforts during the emergency.
A health care emergency is defined in the agreement as “an unpredictable or unavoidable occurrence at unscheduled or unpredictable intervals relating to health care delivery requiring immediate medical intervention and care.”
In the complaint, the union said the hospital faced a “severe” nurse shortage, "particularly given the spike in patient admissions due to the pandemic.”
From August 2019 to September 2021, the complaint states, the number of nurses at the hospital decreased from 798 to 680 and then dropped to 600 a year later, amounting to a net decrease of almost 25 percent.
On January 21, 2022, Ascension CEO Keith Parrott sent an email to all staff announcing “a one-time premium incentive,” stating that “positions that have delivered patient-facing care” throughout the pandemic would “receive a premium payment of 15 percent of their total earnings for the month of November 2021.”
A month later, a union staff representative contacted the health system's director of labor relations for an update on the incentive pay. The director of labor relations, Kathy Bouma, said she was unaware of any incentive payments and would find out more.
In February 2022, Bouma sent an email to staff about an incentive payment that was less than what the CEO had originally promised. In March, the union said it discovered that the hospital and Ascension were giving non-union employees “that have delivered patient-facing care” the incentive payment but were not giving that payment to union members.
The union representative at the hospital informed the hospital that failure to give union members the promised payment would be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.
The hospital and Ascension refused to pay any amount, and, after several failed settlement discussions, the union took its grievance to court.
Prime Healthcare acquired St. Joseph Medical Center – Joliet in March 2025, after this incentive was promised to staff by the hospital's previous owner. In a statement to Newsweek, Prime Healthcare said it is "not involved in this matter in any way."
"This issue involves compensation incentives from Ascension during COVID in 2021," the health system said. "We support our nurses and have honored their tireless work during the pandemic and continue to be grateful.”
What Happens Next
The Illinois Nurses Association filed a petition to compel arbitration, which means they are asking the court to enforce their collective bargaining agreement with the health system and pay the union nurses the incentive payment they were promised.
According to the complaint, Ascension Health consistently declined to submit the grievance to arbitration, stating that the underlying grievance is not arbitrable.
Newsweek reached out to the Illinois Nurses Association and Ascension Health for comment.
UPDATE 10/21 at 3:48 p.m.: This story was updated with comment from Prime Healthcare.
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