A major health system, ThedaCare, argued in court that its workers were so essential they couldn’t leave.

A strike at St. Vincent Hospital ended this week with a big win for nurses, who had complained of dangerous patient-to-staff ratios.

Rather than getting higher pay or more staff, medical workers are being forced to endure looser guidelines that put everyone at greater risk.

Hospital cost-cutting and systematic devaluation of nurses’ labor has been going on for decades.