Cook County Physician Assistants March to Toni Preckwinkle’s Office

On Thursday, May 17, Cook County physician assistants went to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office in downtown Chicago to put pressure on Cook County Board of Commissioners to pass a physician assistant agreement. The agreement was first initiated by Cook County and would secure better working conditions for physician assistants including pay increases and improved hiring practices. The power to push forward the agreement is currently in the hands of President Preckwinkle. She has the power to tell the commissioners to take the agreement out of committee and put it up for a vote.

The working conditions of Local 73 physician assistants are directly correlated to patient care. These union members are providers and when they are short staffed, patient care is negatively affected. By being short staffed, workers have to work harder to get the job done. Often times workers stay late beyond their shift to finish charting. Cook County is getting ready to open up a new general medicine center. The system is not able to effectively hire due to the fact that wages are not currently at market rates. Honoring this agreement will help move this process forward and secure wages that meet better standards.

Cook County physician assistants intend to take a delegation of workers to meet with Cook County Board of Commissioners and put pressure on them to assure that the agreement comes out of committee and is ratified at the next board meeting on June 5, 2018.