INDIANAPOLIS — Hundreds of nurses at IU Health’s University and Methodist hospitals downtown are looking to unionize.
Organizers say it’s not pay or benefits driving the effort, but rather patient care.
“We are just not able to care for our patients in the way that we want to, and we haven’t been able to in years,” said Bailey Pollard, a critical care nurse at University Hospital.
Pollard said the idea to unionize started in September 2022 after stalled conversations with the administration and staffing challenges created by the pandemic.
“On our unit, I think we lost at least 10 nurses within the last year and this year we have hired one staff nurse,” Pollard said. “We gave [the administration] a lot of time to make decisions and the decisions that we wanted to happen were not happening. So, we felt like it was time to take matters into our own hands.”
The group of nurses also cite pay as another frustration.
“Nobody doing this job should have to worry about paying their bills. Nobody should have to worry about being able to afford health insurance,” Pollard said.
According to nurses, there are roughly 1,000 staff nurses between the two hospitals. As of this week, Pollard said about 400 of them are interested in unionizing.
The union would only include nurses from University and Methodist Hospitals, since the two teams will soon consolidate once IU Health’s new downtown hospital is complete in 2027.
Travel nurses would also not be included. Pollard hopes a union would help retain more local nurses.
“As we continue to campaign and go to the hospitals and really talk about the issues that we are all facing, more and more people are getting involved,” Pollard said.
A spokesperson for IU Health said in a statement:
“IU Health respects team members’ right to explore joining a union, but IU Health desires to remain a non-union work environment and does not feel a union is in the best interest of our nurses or patients. IU Health is committed to safe, high-quality care and clinical outcomes, and providing nurses with a voice in decision-making through a shared governance model. As part of normal compensation practice, IU Health continues to adjust pay for nursing and other critical clinical positions to ensure wages are competitive to recruit and retain the best talent to care for patients. Pay and staffing remain top priorities as we work to serve our team members.”
A similar movement took off in 2015 at three IU Health hospitals, but the group ran into some roadblocks and was unsuccessful.
The new organizers hope to hold a vote sometime next year with a goal of 50 to 70 percent of nurses in support.