Unlike in high-profile strikes such as that of the United Auto Workers in 2023, however, the nurses sought more than improvements to their jobs.
They wanted a first contract negotiated by their union—the very document that establishes ground rules for improving their jobs. In the process, they joined a nationwide surge in short, precontract strikes following a spate of union organizing.
When UMC nurses won their fight to unionize last December, battling a lack of supplies and staffing even as hospital revenue soared, “I expected the negotiations wouldn’t be swift, but not that they would take this long,” said Webster. The victory put them among the ranks of well over 100,000 workers who have unionized in the last few years amid a significant rise in organizing. Yet experts report it’s normal for workers to successfully unionize but struggle to secure a contract without a lengthy second battle.