The 500 union nurses of St. Joe’s Nurses Association put in the mandatory ten day notice to strike on February 8th and 9th. They are asking their community to show support. Last year, Ascension Healthcare faced a wave of strikes and unionization efforts stretching from Austin, Texas to Rochester, Michigan to Baltimore, Maryland, all protesting the employer’s chronic understaffing, below market wages and regular violations of federal labor law. Nurses at Ascension St. Joseph in Joliet, Illinois went on strike twice as part of that wave and have now called for a third ULP strike after the company unilaterally implemented an offer that nurses resoundingly rejected in December.