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About 200 advanced practice registered nurses, physician assistants and midwives at UI Health could strike as early as next week, saying they were left out of raises given to other workers.

The providers, represented by SEIU Local 73, delivered a 10-day strike notice to the health system Friday. That means they could strike Nov. 10, though they have not yet set a date, in hopes of first resolving the dispute through mediation, according to the union.

The union contends that University of Illinois workers were given 2% raises in August but the advanced practice providers were not. The union and the university have been battling for more than a year over whether the union should be allowed to bargain on behalf of the workers.

“This is a serious step, and it is not one our members take lightly,” said Dian Palmer, president of Local 73, of the strike notice in a news release. “Our invitation to mediate stands. We would much rather settle this at the table than on a picket line, and we are ready to meet whenever the University is.”

UI Health said in a statement Monday that it “values the critical role our healthcare professionals play in providing exceptional care to our patients and community” and that if a strike occurs “we have comprehensive contingency plans in place to maintain operations and ensure safe, high-quality patient care at the University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics.” 

The providers work at University of Illinois Hospital and some of the health system’s clinics.

The workers won certification of their union in 2025 from the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. The University of Illinois board of trustees has been challenging that certification. Earlier this year, the 4th District Appellate Court in Springfield agreed to put a hold on bargaining while the university’s underlying appeal of the union’s certification proceeds.

The union appealed that stay on bargaining to the Illinois Supreme Court, but the appeal was denied, according to the union.

“UI Health maintains that a strike would be unlawful while the court’s order remains in effect and until the legal requirements for a lawful strike have been met,” UI Health said in the statement Monday.

Meanwhile the union maintains that it’s “duplicitous” that University of Illinois asked the court to put bargaining on hold while also “claiming that any wage increase would need to be bargained.”