Back here in Chicago, just a few miles from the DNC, over a thousand nurses from the University of Illinois Hospital are on a weeklong strike. The Illinois Nurses Association says UI Health has refused to address understaffing, unsafe working conditions and fair pay demands. Democracy Now! spoke to nurses on the picket line Tuesday.

Eileen Fajardo-Furlin: “Eileen Fajardo-Furlin. I’ve been here at UIH since 2004, 20 years, and I also serve as the chair for the Nursing Care Committee. We’re striking because of unfair labor practice. For the first time ever, the management team walked out during negotiation, walked out and wouldn’t come back when we asked them to come back. But we do have other things that is on the table, one of which is our safety. They have a Workplace Violence Prevention Committee. There are 39 management people on the committee, not one single bedside nurse.”