Hundreds Of Health Care Workers Strike After Layoffs At Howard Brown

CHICAGO, IL — Hundreds of employees at Howard Brown Health began a three-day strike Tuesday in the wake of layoffs by the healthcare provider.

Demonstrators made their voices heard, displaying signs declaring “we strike for patients” and “people over profits” as well as an inflatable rat outside Howard Brown clinics, photos on social media showed, after 60 union positions and four non-union jobs were eliminated.

Howard Brown is the largest LGBTQ health center in the Midwest and serves over 40,000 people at 11 clinics across Chicago. A notification on Howard Brown's website Tuesday warned patients that the strike could result in delays for those with appointments scheduled through Thursday.

“After looking at every option for cost-saving measures, many of which we have already started to implement, we are now taking difficult but necessary actions to reduce expenses with a reduction in workforce,” President and CEO David Ernesto Munar said in a news release.

The layoffs are part of Howard Brown’s plan to address a $12 million revenue shortfall created by losses in federal funding, according to the health center, which also said in the news release that it was cutting leadership pay.

Unions are arguing Howard Brown broke labor laws by moving forward with the layoffs — which took effect Tuesday — and failed to bargain in good faith, according to a news release from the Illinois Nurses’ Association issued in solidarity with Howard Brown Health Workers United.

Howard Brown employees lost access to their emails and other accounts during work hours Friday, the health center’s union tweeted, with one therapist being disrupted while on the phone with a patient and then laid off. The therapist was unable to access the patient’s contact information and therefore could not explain to the patient what had happened, according to the union.

“Not being able to give my clients a proper exit plan from therapy due to having zero information of a timeline is unethical clinical practice & THAT is all on the hands of HBH executive leadership,” said a crisis therapist, identified only as Raylinn, in a tweet from the union.

In the wake of the layoffs, a group of Chicago aldermen and alderwomen have cosigned a letter to the city health department asking its leaders what steps would be taken to ensure Howard Brown patients continue to get necessary care, according to the letter, tweeted by Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt.

“As we all know the LGBTQIA population in Chicago remains vulnerable for a host of reasons and the City of Chicago needs to be proactive in ensuring that Howard Brown Health patients experience no disruptions in care as a result of Howard Brown Health's actions,” the letter said.