OLYMPIA FIELDS, IL — Four registered nurses at Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields are being reinstated and will return to work this week after earlier suspensions, according to National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United. The union says the reinstatements come after a tense stretch in which Prime Healthcare disciplined nurses who had raised concerns about patient care and staffing.
National Nurses United said the four were among six nurses suspended or fired at the Illinois hospital by Sept. 15. One nurse had already been reinstated on Oct. 2, and another on Oct. 5. The latest move means the nurses who were suspended are now heading back to their jobs as union activity at the hospital continues to draw attention.
Union says nurses were punished for speaking up about patient care
Hillary Ferrell, a former registered nurse at Olympia Fields Hospital, said the discipline was tied to patient advocacy. She said nurses were speaking up because they believed patients and the surrounding community needed safer staffing and safer care.
The union has framed the reinstatements as part of a broader dispute over how Prime Healthcare responded to nurses who raised workplace and patient-safety concerns. National Nurses United said nurses were disciplined after voicing those concerns, while the company has not publicly addressed the reinstatement details in the information provided.
For nurses involved in the campaign, the issue has gone beyond individual job status. The reinstated nurses are returning to a workplace where staffing levels and working conditions remain central to the conversation.
Union election at Olympia Fields followed filing with federal labor board
The organizing push at Olympia Fields accelerated after nurses filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 24 seeking a union election. Prime Healthcare then suspended or fired nurses, according to National Nurses United, setting off additional concern among staff supporters.
Despite those actions, nurses at the Illinois hospital later won their union election by 82 percent on Sept. 23. The union described that result as a strong statement from the nursing staff in favor of representation.
Prime Healthcare has continued to challenge the nurses’ victories with the NLRB, according to the union. National Nurses United said more than 40 nurses across the Prime system have been suspended or fired for speaking up on behalf of patients.
Maine nurses also voted in, as Prime disputes expand across states
The Olympia Fields campaign is part of a wider organizing effort involving Prime Healthcare hospitals in several states. Nurses at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, filed a union election petition on Aug. 24, the same day as the Illinois hospital nurses.
Central Maine Medical Center nurses later won their union vote on Sept. 24, according to the timeline provided by National Nurses United. That made the Maine hospital another location where nurses had pressed for a formal role in workplace negotiations.
National Nurses United said the Maine and Illinois campaigns reflect a larger push inside the Prime system, where nurses at multiple hospitals have linked union organizing to concerns about patient care and safe staffing.
Strikes and pickets spread to Prime hospitals in California and Nevada
The labor dispute also reached Prime hospitals in California and Nevada. On Sept. 3, nurses at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California; Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada; Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago; and Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, California held one-day strikes.
Those actions were organized to protest Prime’s refusal to address nurse concerns about patient care and staffing, according to the union. Nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth had already voted to join NNOC in June.
On Sept. 15, Olympia Fields nurses held a one-day strike as well, focusing on what they described as retaliation against nurses who speak up for patients. Nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth and Central Maine Medical Center also held informational pickets in solidarity with the Olympia Fields staff.
National Nurses United says it now represents more than 3,000 Prime workers
National Nurses United said it now represents more than 3,000 health care workers in the Prime Healthcare system nationwide, and more than 1,800 are already in active contract negotiations. The union said that number shows how much momentum it has gained inside the company’s hospital network.
The organization describes itself as the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States, with more than 225,000 members nationwide. Its affiliates include groups in California, the District of Columbia, Michigan, Minnesota and New York.
For the nurses at Olympia Fields, the immediate development is personal: four suspended colleagues are returning to work. For the broader union campaign, the reinstatements come at a time when labor pressure on Prime Healthcare remains active in multiple states.