PA: Nurses at Crozer ratify contract---Look what they $$$ won

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

nurses at crozer ratify contract

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/delaware_county/3592099.htm

upland - nurses at crozer-chester medical center voted 313-234 to ratify a contract late monday night, averting a strike that had been set for yesterday morning.

hospital management did not write lower, mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios into the 35-month contract. nurses and officials of the nearly 700-member crozer-chester nurses association, who said the hospital was facing a nursing shortage partly because of high patient loads, had said the decreased ratios were their top priority. a joint committee will be formed with management to make recommendations to improve staffing levels.

the contract gives nurses wage and pension increases, and expanded summer vacation days. wages for nurses with one year of experience begin at $25 per hour and increase to $37.54 per hour for nurses at the top of the wage scale. in two years, the range will be $27.22 to $41.38 per hour.

this facility is 5 minutes from my home. with my 20 years as rn, could probably get a $10 hr raise by working there. home care doesn't pay like it used to. karen

--------------------------------crozer nurses ratify contract

by erik schwartz and patti mengers, of the times staff july 02, 2002

http://www.delcotimes.com/site/news..._id=18171&rfi=8

unionized nurses at crozer-chester medical center approved a new contract yesterday. members of the crozer-chester nurses association, voted 314-234 to ratify a three-year agreement, according to bobbi mcclay, union president.

the union, a division of the pennsylvania association of staff nurses and allied professionals, represents about 700 registered nurses at the upland hospital. the contract does not include mandatory staffing ratios that the union had requested, but it does establish a joint labor-management committee to study the issue, especially in units that understaffed, mcclay said.

earlier in the day, bill cruice, director of the state organization, said the tentative agreement negotiated with crozer-keytone health system executives was a start in addressing the changes nurses feel they need, especially in the face of a widespread labor shortage in their field. "i think there are some significant changes that are for the better in this contract," he said.

with an average base salary of $54,000, crozer nurses had been seeking a limit to the number of patients assigned to them per shift. the union proposed reducing to 5-to-1 the ratio of patients to nurses in medical and surgical units and 2-to-1 in critical care.

mcclay said the nursing shortage is most evident in the medical-surgical units where, at night, nurses each can be responsible for eight to nine patients per shift. some nurses have reported to have as many as 13 patients per shift, she said.

cruice estimated that last week that crozer needed about 100 more nurses to achieve a safe staffing level. he said that setting a nurse-to-patient ratio would help ensure patient safety and attract nurses to crozer.

crozer nurses had been represented by the pennsylvania state education association health care division from 1993 until 2000 when they voted with nurses at 16 other hospitals in the state to form the pennsylvania association of staff nurse and allied professionals.

for about 20 years before affiliating with the psea health care division, crozer nurses had been members of the pennsylvania nurses association.

this would be the state group's first contract at crozer-chester. on june 7, crozer-chester nurses voted 474-12 to authorize a strike should they fail to win a new contract by the time the current one expired.

©the daily times 2002

crozer is the largest hospital in my area; 50,000 er visits/yr, only trauma and burn center. you should see the marketing i get from the crozer health system. glad to see some of the money will be shifting to where it belongs. thirty years experience with unionizing...wow... they have a lot of 20+year nurses working there.

[imenid37]

i hope to experience the trickle-down effect as this spreads to my part of the state (2 hrs. west). this is a really busy place and those nurses deserve a good salary. i took an efm class there five years ago. the staff they had presenting it were awesome in terms of their knowledge and very nice folks too! glad to hear it.

[fedupnurse]

I hope they don't really think they will achieve any real change regarding staffing issues via a committee. Money is all well and good but I can see by the # of no votes that 234 people there felt strongly enough about patient care to vote with their hearts. I have been on strike and would prefer to never do that agin but I won't settle for just money this time around. I know our suits won't make any meaningful progress because we have had a staffing committee for about 5 years and we have made zero progress because the suits won't allow us to.

Congrats on the money but don't expect working conditions to change unless you can nail them to the wall and you can only do that through contract language.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

This was their FIRST contract with PASNAP union. Have to start somewhere. Committee formation good place to start. PASNAP has ALSO gotten state senators to introduce Mandatory staffing requirement bill (https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18768)

SO they have more leverage to get staffing ratios implimented BEFORE required by law....knowing Crozer they will use as braging rights and marketing for nurses, even though UNION led initiative.