NLRB blocks union election due to Prime Healthcare’s illegal interference with nurses’ right to unionize

Prime management has unlawfully suspended and fired a nurse, conducted illegal surveillance, interrogated nurses while eliminating positions

Today the National Labor Relations Board's Region 13 Office in Chicago moved to block the originally scheduled Sept. 17 NLRB union election at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill., in light of credible allegations that a free and fair election is not possible at this time due to Prime Healthcare's substantial and flagrant violations of the National Labor Relations Act, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the nation. Saint Francis is one of the eight Prime hospitals in Illinois that Prime Healthcare acquired from Ascension in 2025.

After Saint Francis nurses petitioned the NLRB for their union election on Aug. 24, Prime management has unlawfully suspended and fired a nurse, conducted illegal surveillance of nurses who have spoken with union staff, and eliminated up to 45 per diem RNs' (PRN) positions while interrogating them about their support for the union. (Per diem nurses work on an as needed basis.) NNOC filed charges on Sept. 8 and is seeking injunctive relief, which the NLRB could include in its immediate remedy.

"After advocating for patients in my community, Prime Healthcare fired me," said Emma Isakson, RN. "It is clear that Prime is scared and desperate, because when we do hold our election, we will win our union and be able to put our patients before profits. Prime's bullying tactics will not work on me or other Saint Francis nurses. We will never stop advocating for our patients."

Nurses across the country are organizing and speaking up systemwide against Prime Healthcare because Prime endangers patients and nurses by putting profits above all else. RNs at two other Prime Healthcare facilities, Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, also filed union election petitions on Aug. 24 because they know that only through unionization can they force Prime to address their concerns about patient care and safe staffing.

On Sept. 3, nurses at four Prime hospitals across three states - West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California; Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, California - held one-day strikes to protest Prime's refusal to address deep concerns about patient care and safe staffing.

Prime's illegal retaliation against nurses for speaking up for patients - suspending six nurses at Olympia Fields Hospital and one nurse at Saint Francis, and firing six nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth - has spurred nurses at Olympia Fields to announce a strike on Sept. 15 and for nurses and health care workers at three Prime Healthcare hospitals in two states - Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada; West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California; and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, California - to announce a sympathy strike on Sept. 15 in solidarity with striking nurses at Olympia Fields. Nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital and at Central Maine Medical Center will hold informational pickets in solidarity with Olympia Fields RNs on the same day.

The RNs are part of a national union movement to fight for safe staffing and optimal patient care throughout the entire Prime Healthcare system. The suspensions and firing are just one aspect of Prime's mistreatment of patient advocates. Learn more about Prime's crimes at crimehealthcare.com.

Prime's Profiteering

The conditions driving Prime nurses to take unprecedented collective action at their hospitals are part of a broader pattern of Prime negligence and cutting services despite its profits.

Prime has a history of acquiring hospitals and then cutting services after it promised to maintain them.

• On Sept. 1, 2026, Prime announced that it would suspend obstetric services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago and consolidate them at Saint Mary of Nazareth in Chicago and Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Ill. U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood accused Prime of putting "profits over patients" and of having "no plans" to help patients travel miles to receive obstetrics care.
• Less than two months after it acquired St. Mary's Hospital in Kankakee, Ill., in March 2025, Prime shut down the hospital's obstetrics, gynecology, childbirth and delivery services and voluntarily gave up the facility's Level II trauma designation, resulting in an injunction filed by the Kankakee County State's Attorney, claiming that Prime was dishonest about keeping all services open for 18-24 months after acquisition.
• Prime cut services in May 2025 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Ill. and in April 2025 at Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, Ill., soon after acquisition, leading to a letter to Prime CEO Prem Reddy from Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin accusing the company of violating its commitments to maintain services to meet community needs.

Prime greatly benefits financially from Prime Healthcare Foundation, its nonprofit hospital system.

• In 2024, Prime Healthcare Foundation gave more than $104 million in business to firms owned by the Reddy family- Prime Healthcare Services Inc., Prime Healthcare Management, and Bio-Med Services, Inc., according to its Form 990. CEO Prem Reddy is the founder of Prime Healthcare.
• Prime's nonprofit hospital system only provided $3.5 million in uncompensated charity care for patients in 2024, about 0.4 percent of the foundation's expenses.
• In 2024, Prime Healthcare Foundation claimed more than $78 million in debts they tried to collect from patients who qualified for charity care.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.