Nurses attempting to unionize at Endeavor Health allege that two nurses were terminated after participating in union organizing activities earlier this month.
Tricia Poreda, a critical care nurse and one of the leaders of the organizing effort, said two charge nurses from Evanston Hospital were wearing union shirts and their Endeavor Health badges while distributing union literature and delivering gifts for National Nurses Week.
Endeavor operates nine hospitals in the Chicagoland area, including Evanston Hospital as its flagship facility. So far, organizing efforts are taking place at four of them — Evanston, Skokie, Glenbrook and Highland Park. The four “legacy” hospitals were once part of the North Shore University Health System, which became part of Endeavor after North Shore merged with Edward-Elmhust Health in 2022.
Poreda said the nurses were fired for misrepresentation, despite identifying themselves by name to security when they went to deliver gifts to nurses inside the hospital.
Endeavor declined to comment on the terminations but said in a statement that “Endeavor Health has and will continue to respect the federally protected rights of our nurses to make an informed choice about union representation.”
Endeavor nurses are seeking to organize with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Poreda said the effort is driven by concerns over understaffing and compensation.
Poreda is also one of several nurses who filed a federal lawsuit against Endeavor last year, alleging the health system understaffed nurses to cut costs, jeopardized patient safety and routinely required nurses to work past their shifts without pay.
“We want to care for our patients the way that we’d want our own families cared for. But the way that Endeavor has been staffing recently, we’re not able to do that,” Poreda said.
The organizing effort comes amid heightened concerns about safety at Endeavor hospitals following multiple violent incidents at its facilities. In April, a Chicago police officer was killed in a shooting at Swedish Hospital, an Endeavor Health hospital on the city’s North Side.
In June 2025, a patient in the emergency room at Evanston Hospital shot a security guard, according to authorities. Christian Haywood was charged with attempted murder and is awaiting trial.
Poreda also said nurses have reported hourly pay cuts amounting to between $9,000 and $30,000 annually.
“Cutting pay for anyone in this economy right now is crazy, but to your frontline medical workers, it’s just not right,” Poreda said.
An Endeavor spokesperson said the health system remains committed to paying market-based wages to its nurses.
Endeavor CEO Gerald Gallagher earned more than $5 million in 2024, including a bonus of approximately $1.4 million, according to Endeavor’s most recent tax return. However, Endeavor also had a $494 million operating loss that year, according to an audited financial statement.
The organizing effort at Endeavor Health is part of a larger push for unions among Chicago-area nurses. Earlier this month, nurses at Rush University Medical Center voted to unionize.
“We believe all nurses should be unionized in order to fight for the very best for their patients,” Poreda said. “We were cheering them on for their vote and we’re looking to be next.”
