Recently, UIH RN Bonnie V. traveled to her Philippines homeland for the first time in 20 years. It was a profound experience that gave her the opportunity to connect with family she hadn’t seen in decades, meet new relatives, re-introduce her daughters to their culture, and visit the gravesite of her father, who had sent her to America at 11 years old in hopes of a better life.

“My father passed away when I was very young,” Bonnie said. “To go back now and finally visit the grave—I felt closure.”

In March of 2026, Bonnie’s managers in Endoscopy announced a new vacation policy that would threaten these kinds of trips. Management unilaterally announced that endoscopy staff could not take more than 1 week of their accrued vacation during holidays and the following two months. Not only is this policy a direct violation of the CBA, it disproportionately affects workers with families overseas, who represent roughly 1/3 of the nurses in her unit.

Nurses with family abroad may only see their loved ones once every year or every other year. But travel time for an international trip can often last several days once factoring in air and ground travel, cutting into precious family time.

“In our culture, spending time with family is really important,” Bonnie said. “For the first time, one of my daughters has gone and met a lot of cousins and extended family that she’s never seen… I was able to show my children our country, our culture, and embrace that.”

Nurses have a right to spend as much time with their families as they can—and a right to use the vacation time they have earned.

“[Management] has no right to change our vacation policy, especially if it’s vacation that we earned,” Bonnie said. “We can’t allow them to do whatever they want without our consent. That’s the reason we have a contract and that’s the reason we have a union.”

The INA has filed a grievance and Unfair Labor Practice charge for the unfair and arbitrary vacation policy. We are proud to fight alongside our sister union SEIU 73, whose workers in Endoscopy are also having their rights violated.

Bonnie recently earned her master’s degree in nursing. When she visited her father’s grave on her Philippines trip in March, she dedicated her success to him.

“I left a copy of my diploma and told him, ‘Hey Dad, this is your dream for me,’” she said. “That’s important for all of us. A lot of us came here to have that American dream, and you go home and your parents there—who sacrificed for you—they deserve to be visited. They deserve time with us.”

Now that Bonnie has been back once, she hopes to return more often. And her union will continue to fight for her right to do so.

INA-UIH Members: If a similar policy has been introduced in your unit, please tell your steward or email ncc@illinoisnurses.com.