Howard Brown health care workers kick off 2-day strike for better pay, benefits

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About 200 Howard Brown Health workers walked off the job at three clinics Tuesday to kick off a two-day strike seeking better pay and working conditions.

“It is unfortunate that our leadership does not want to come to the table and bargain with us in a fair way over a fair contract,” said Louis Spraggins, a partner services coordinator at Howard Brown’s Englewood clinic, 641 W. 63rd St., who was among 30 workers walking the picket line there.

Spraggins said leadership has fired workers without negotiation with the union, made changes in working conditions without bargaining, and he noted the National Labor Relations Board found merit or partial merit in July in the union’s claims of bad faith bargaining amid significant layoffs. As a result, all 61 workers were offered their positions back, with 24 taking the offer.

Demands from the union include a raise of the minimum hourly wage to $21 from $16.07, affordable health insurance, rights for the union to be at the table for decision-making, layoff protections and notices, overtime pay for shifts longer than eight hours, remote work options and negotiations before changes of job duties. Of those in the union who voted, 96% voted to strike.

Howard Brown has brought proposals, including a new minimum wage of $19.23 for retail employees, a 5.4% increase for base wages this year, a $1,200 contract signing bonus and expanded benefits for part-time staff, including two weeks paid leave for gender-affirming care, one new holiday and three to five weeks vacation, a spokesperson said in a statement Nov. 3.

“In the same way that our patients rely on us, we must provide our staff with the tools they need to best serve our community,” Katie Metos, vice president of external relations at Howard Brown Health, said in a statement. “Whether or not our staff choose to join the picket line this week, we will be ready on Thursday to come together and continue to serve our community in the ways that we know no one else can.”

The next bargaining session is Nov. 21. The union put Howard Brown’s most recent contract offer to vote starting Tuesday. The vote will conclude Sunday.

Spraggins, whose job includes sexual health counseling and contact tracing for sexually transmitted infections, said he also wants to see better benefits for employees.

Spraggins has HIV and said he had to opt for a different health care plan through Howard Brown, which focuses on LGBTQ+ care, because the insurance premiums were too expensive, making it more difficult for him to receive HIV-related care.

“It feels like a betrayal,” he said.

Brown Elephant retail workers, some of the lowest-paid employees at Howard Brown, at about $16 an hour, aren’t offered health care, Spraggins said.

Workers striking outside Howard Brown’s Englewood location brought special attention to the disparities workers faced on the South Side compared to their North Side counterparts.

Tiffany Foster-Mitchell, a lead medical assistant at Howard Brown Health at Thresholds South, 734 W. 47th St., cited bed bugs, roaches and a lack of hot water as being problems at her clinic. She said it was frustrating to see Howard Brown Health open a $53 million clinic on the North Side, at 3501 N. Halsted St., when clinics on the South Side are run “into the ground.”

Another problem Foster-Mitchell has seen is people of color being the target of unfair labor practices, she said.

“Most of the people who are targeted here when it comes to discipline ... are Black and Brown at Howard Brown Health. Many times we find ourselves standing up for ourselves, fighting for ourselves,” Foster-Mitchell said.

Howard Brown Health disputed these claims.

“We have a diverse staff and diverse managers. We trend HR data across a number of areas and have no proof that disciplinary actions disproportionately target Black and Brown staff,” CEO David Munar said.

Working for Howard Brown Health, a company whose mission focuses on equity in health care, while fighting for a living wage “is painful,” Foster-Mitchell said.

“You just can’t be a company that says that you stand for social justice or equal health care opportunities or equality in the workplace when you’re not doing any of that,” she said. “It hurts. It’s very painful to know that we’re not worth making sure that we get the basic livable wages, basic health care.”

Brown Elephant employees, if they worked 20 hours weekly, would pay 8.2% from each paycheck for health care at their new proposed wage rate of $19.23, Munar said.

This is the second strike by unionized workers at the LGBTQ+ focused Chicago health care facilities this year. In January, workers held a three-day strike, during which 440 workers protested the organization’s decision to lay off 61 union workers in the midst of contract negotiations.

The union has around 366 members and includes nurse practitioners, physician assistants, case managers and Brown Elephant employees.

The locations for the strike are 4025 N. Sheridan Road, 3501 N. Halsted St. and 641 W. 63rd St. on Tuesday and Wednesday. The union will hold a rally at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Howard Brown’s Halsted clinic.