Daily Southtown, May 2, 2006

Cook County nurses probably will call a strike this weekend, union leaders said, unless Cook County does an about-face on major contract issues.

"We are currently conducting systemwide strike preparations at every facility and every shift," said Fernando Losada, Midwest director for the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which took over nurses' representation last May. "At this point, (a strike) seems likely unless the county changes its tack."

The nurses care for thousands of the area's sickest patients at Stroger, Provident and Oak Forest hospitals and the county's suburban clinics. They last went on strike 30 years ago. ... Union