U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., is calling for Endeavor Health to reinstate two Evanston Hospital nurses who a union official says were fired as they try to unionize.
It’s illegal for most private employers, including hospitals, to penalize workers for forming a union, according to the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency that protects the right to organize.
Nurses at Evanston, Skokie, Glenbrook and Highland Park hospitals, which are part of Endeavor Health, started openly unionizing this spring.
In a June 2 letter obtained by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, Garcia urged Endeavor CEO Gerald Gallagher to refrain from intimidating or retaliating against nearly 3,000 nurses who are working to unionize with the Teamsters Local 743 over pay cuts and what they say are unsafe working conditions.
“All workers should have the free and fair choice to join a union,” wrote Garcia, who has progressive organizing roots. “Endeavor must stop its unfair labor practices, reinstate the two terminated nurses from Evanston Hospital, and respect workers’ right to form a union, free of intimidation, retaliation, and other forms of illegal interference.”
Endeavor is one of the biggest hospital systems in the Chicago area, treating more than 1 million patients a year and employing more than 27,000 people, according to the health system.
The not-for-profit hospital operator had about $6.4 billion in revenue in 2025.
Nurses have cited pay cuts of $5 to $22 an hour and “severe understaffing as contributing to a stressful work environment,” Garcia wrote, citing WBEZ/Sun-Times reporting. The pay cuts have come as some executives receive bonuses, records show.
Gallagher made just over $5 million in 2024, including a $1.4 million bonus, as well as retirement and other “deferred” compensation, Endeavor’s most recent tax return shows. That year, the health system had a $494 million operating loss, much of it from legal settlements, an audited financial statement shows.
Three charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Endeavor since March, Garcia said in the letter. They include accusations of retaliation or disciplinary action against workers “engaged in protected concerted activities” and putting them under surveillance.
An Endeavor spokesperson said the health system carefully reviews “each individual employment action to ensure compliance with all applicable laws. We fully respect the federally protected rights of our nurses to engage and make an informed choice about union representation. While respecting these rights, we must prioritize the safety, privacy and care of our patients and team members and maintain consistent enforcement of our workplace policies.”
The unionizing effort has included Endeavor’s legacy hospitals in the suburbs — Evanston, Skokie, Glenbrook and Highland Park hospitals, according to Tricia Poreda, one of the Endeavor nurses leading organizing efforts. Those hospitals were part of the system when it was known as NorthShore University HealthSystem, before it grew bigger through mergers. The goal is to organize nurses across Endeavor, Poreda said.
The two nurses who were fired in May were experienced senior nurses in the intensive-care unit at Evanston Hospital, according to Poreda, who said they were dropping off gift bags with union information to nurses in the hospital and identified themselves to security employees inside. After working their roughly 12-hour night shifts, they were suspended without pay, then fired for allegedly misrepresenting themselves for wearing their work badges and scrubs while also wearing a union T-shirt, Poreda said.
The firings have galvanized nurses, according to Poreda. She said many used to be afraid to even talk about forming a union but now have started a petition that about 1,000 people have signed to get their fired colleagues back to work.
“This was a movement to reincite that fear and control, and it’s really had the opposite effect,” she said. “It’s just made nurses even more upset and more driven.”
Kristen Schorsch covers the health of the region for WBEZ.