CGH Finalizes Union Contract with Employees
Health care workers at CGH Medical Center have ratified their first union contract, more than five years after forming the CGH Employees Union with AFSCME Council 31. About 800 hospital and clinic employees unionized in April 2021. Union leaders say negotiations were delayed for years, accusing CGH management of resisting the process. AFSCME’s Ben Conboy called the five-year bargaining period “almost unheard of.”
In 2022, an Illinois Labor Relations Board judge found CGH violated state labor law by deterring employees from unionizing. A 2025 change to state law now allows independent arbitration when first-contract talks stall.