By Dorothy Brown and Gerry Scoppettuolo
Healthcare workers do not decide to strike without good reason especially in a right-to-work (for less) state such as Wisconsin. But when unionized Nurses at Meriter hospital in Madison walked out on May 27, they were well prepared for their struggle.
After a five-day strike, victory for over 900 RN’s at Meriter came after months of preparation by the Nurses through their Bargaining Committee, Contract Action Team and concrete union, student and community solidarity actions. The Meriter Nurses struck UnityPoint Health – Meriter in Madison, a $1 billion hospital chain with multiple locations in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. At present, the nurses unit in Madison is the only unionized nurses unit in this hospital chain’s network.
The Meriter Nurses won most of their economic and working condition demands with wage increases and improved staffing language. Their strike, the biggest in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin history, just as importantly, sent a message that united labor and community solidarity in this time of increased nationwide repression of the working class, can triumph. The strike win was one of the biggest private sector worker wins in recent decades in Wisconsin.
Pat Raes, SEIU Wisconsin President and a Meriter Nurse for 35 years, said of the striking nurses resolve:
”We have nurses that are being treated for long-term health issues that cannot afford to lose their insurance who were out striking. Their work can be very stressful, involving a high degree of skill and emotional commitment yet they found the time and energy to take on the added challenge of and risk withholding their labor until the value of that labor was recognized.”
Wisconsin, The Austerity Model
This successful strike win took place within the context of the current federal attacks on workers and their communities. Wisconsin has been a model for this. Wisconsin has been subject to some of the most horrific union busting and austerity in the recent period. In 2011, despite days of workers and community members occupying the state capitol and related actions, Act 10 was passed and signed into law by former Governor Scott Walker. This bill eliminated almost all collective bargaining rights for all public sector workers except firefighters and the police. In 2015, the Jim Crow based Right-To-Work (for less) law was passed by the right wing legislature and signed into law by Walker. In 2017, union prevailing wage laws were eliminated in the state.
These measures have resulted in a 150,000 union member loss in Wisconsin since 2011, a transfer of wealth to the rich in the tens of billions and a reduction in working class organizations and union capacity. Previous to this austerity, Milwaukee and then Wisconsin was used as a laboratory for the implementation of charter schools and “welfare reform” in the 1990’s and 2000’s.”
In addition to this onslaught of union busting, numerous austerity measures have been implemented in the state such as the elimination of numerous tenant rights and environmental protections, debt service to the banks increasing and much more. The $1 billion Milwaukee based right wing Bradley Foundation has bankrolled the ideological program and infrastructure to make this possible. Former Bradley Foundation Chairman Michael Grebe was the Chair of Scott Walker’s two gubernatorial and recall campaigns. Grebe is now helping lead the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) a legal firm that attacks public education and unions and assists right wing organizations such as Moms For Liberty.
How the Nurses Won – ‘Safe Staffing; Saves Lives!’
In the midst of the pummeling attacks and losses in Wisconsin for workers and their communities and the ongoing attacks nationally by the Trump administration, how did the Nurses and their supporters win?
On May 30, the striking nurses marched to the State Capitol to drive home their message to lawmakers and the general public. There, Raes said:
“I’m incredibly proud to march alongside my union siblings and community members who are coming out each day to support our fight. Our working conditions are our patients’ care conditions. The progress we make in prioritizing safety and security in our contract will benefit our entire community.”
Before, during and after the strike, the rallying slogan from the Meriter Nurses “Safe Staffing Save Lives” was everywhere. At pre-strike actions such as an April 8 strike ready rally, massive yellow banners declaring this slogan were very well received by hospital workers, patients and community members. During the five day strike from May 27-31, these banners and others declaring in bold letters “Nurses Strike” were prominent every hour of every day of the strike at the two main picket locations and during marches around the hospital. Many musicians and other artists showed up strong including the Forward Marching Band and the Nurses themselves sang, stepped, led picket lines and chanted all 12 hours of each day of the five day strike. Union communications and external media were full of quotes from a variety of diverse Nurses about how safe staffing is a life and death matter.
A week before the strike, a labor and community Art Build took place at the Madison Labor Temple with dozens of Nurses and their families participating to make signs and banners for the strike.
Leading up to the strike, detailed and multifaceted preparation was the key to winning. Beginning over a year before the current contract expired, Nurse leaders and organizers started their campaign with a membership drive which continued throughout the campaign. The Bargaining Team election, surveys and a Contract Action Team (CAT) with Nurses representing every unit in the hospital, was built and many new Nurse leaders were recruited and developed through these activities. Teams of Nurses developed relationships with numerous small business owners in the Madison metro area who posted “We Support Meriter Nurses” signs in dozens of locations.
Madison has a deep and rich history of union and community solidarity including for the Meriter Nurses many decades of contract campaigns. These resources were again activated and deployed for the May 27-31 strike. The Madison Metro area community displayed constant solidarity, donating thousands of dollars in strike support as well as food provisions. A hardship fund for striking Nurses was created by SEIU WI. Labor and community organizations such as the South Central Federation of Labor AFL-CIO (SCFL) and its affiliate unions, Worker Justice Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera and Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement (WI BOPM) and many others provided critical support to the Nurses. K-12 and higher education educators from the Madison Teachers Union and the Teaching Assistants Association (AFT) and the United Faculty and Academic Staff (AFT) from UW Madison joined the picket lines daily and made financial and other contributions. The Nurses received dozens of support letters, emails and texts from many unions and community organizations.
During the strike, the SEIU Wisconsin secured a permit for a street adjacent to Meriter hospital and this was used to set up canopies, a lactation station, port-a-toilets, transport vehicles, sign in and food tables and other logistical needs. Both the SEIU Wisconsin and SEIU nationally provided staff to assist with logistical and other needs before and during the strike. Many members from numerous SEIU Wisconsin chapters in Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse and other cities joined the picket lines in Madison and shared information. The Group Health Cooperative Workers United (SEIU WI) who are fighting for union recognition, showed up strong. A Nurses Strike Solidarity Pantry was set up at the Madison Labor Temple and staffed for the duration of the strike largely by AFSCME, SEIU and other union retirees and WI BOPM members.
At the conclusion of the strike, items left over from the Nurses strike pantry were donated to UAW Local 291 members on strike at Cummins Corp. in Oshkosh, Wisconsin since March 18, 2025. Before, during and after the strike, the SEIU Wisconsin Communications team kept up a steady stream of union social media with photos, videos and other content as did many other labor and community organizations supporting the Meriter Nurses strike.
On May 31, the Nurses Bargaining Team won a tentative agreement with Meriter management that was put before the members for a vote that day. After all the votes were counted, Raes announced to the press that the contract had been ratified Saturday night by “a supermajority” of nurses. “We had more people vote for this contract than we have ever had in the past,” said Raes.
A local progressive media publication the Capital Times wrote of the strike:
“Madison has historically been a pro-union town, but there was a particularly high level of enthusiasm for the nurses who took to the picket lines. That was because people in this community recognized that the strike was not only about the laudable goal of advancing worker rights. It was about patient safety and quality of care.”
At a Brittingham Park vigil during the strike on May 29, that recognition was abundantly clear, especially when the Rev. Justin Dittrich of Lake Edge Lutheran Church told Meriter Nurses and the wider community:
“You are doing holy work. … The strike is not the end, but the beginning of a more just health care system for all people, workers and participants. We stand with the nurses of Meriter because they are healers, truth tellers, and agents of faith and justice.”
The Struggle Continues
Following the conclusion of the Meriter Nurses strike, Pat Raes and Ed Childs spoke at the Madison Labor Temple June 10 on the topic “Lessons of the Harvard Dining Hall Workers and Meriter Nurses Strikes.” Childs is the former Chief Steward for the Harvard dining hall workers (UNITE HERE Local 26), now retired. Childs has helped lead many successful worker actions including strikes. Childs has visited Wisconsin many times supporting workers fighting back against Act 10, right-to-work and other racist, anti-worker laws. Raes, Childs and other participants – which included many Meriter Nurses – on June 10 discussed the lessons of the strike and next steps within an international perspective.
These steps include preparing for the next contract campaign for 500 plus Service and Support workers at Meriter whose contract expires in March 2026. Meriter Nurses and Service and Support workers are working on plans to build their power together at Meriter through union training and other activities in the coming months.
For a description of the organizing activities that led to the successful Nurses strike win, listen to this edition of We Rise Fighting! Labor Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/e114-cbtu-statement-and-seiu-nurses-on-strike-in-madison-wi–66485956
To see photos, videos and coverage of this historical strike: https://www.facebook.com/SEIUWIS or https://www.facebook.com/wibailoutpeople.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/LaborSCFL
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