2,500 Philly area nurses poised to strike over staffing issues

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

10 day Strike notice given to Trinity Health MidAtlantic facilities: St Mary Medical Center, Langhorne and  Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, Darby PA.

WHYY PBS 11/10/2020

Thousands of nurses at Philly area hospitals poised to strike
 

More than 2,500 Philly-area nurses are preparing to go on strike because they say there aren't enough staff on the hospital floor for the number of patients

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More than 2,500 nurses at four Philadelphia area hospitals are preparing to go on strike in the coming days. Represented by the Pennsylvania Association for Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP, the nurses have found themselves deadlocked with health system operators over one central issue: safe staffing on the hospital floor. It’s a concern nurses nationwide have fought for with increasing success in recent years, and which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.

The 800 nurses at St. Mary Medical Center in Bucks County and the 260 plus at Mercy Fitzgerald in Delaware County have already voted to authorize a strike and each gave a 10-day notice to their employer, Michigan-based Trinity Health. In Philadelphia, nurses at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Einstein Medical Center have voted to authorize a strike but have not yet given their notice to management...

...While staffing grids exist at some of the hospitals, nurses say they aren’t always honored. So, they are pushing for the ratios to be included in their contracts, making them enforceable...

...Nurses at Mercy and St. Mary gave their 10-day notice last Friday, November 6. Since then, management has reached back out to schedule further bargaining sessions. If no agreement is reached by the end of the day on Monday November 16, the nurses are set to stop work for two days beginning Tuesday.

https://whyy.org/articles/thousands-of-nurses-at-philly-area-hospitals-poised-to-strike/?mc_cid=69b050c976&mc_eid=6344aea98c

 

 

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

St Mary's Medical Center nurses followed through on striking.  243 nurses have left this profitable hospital over past 2 years due to higher wages elsewhere and hospital cutting positions, benefits since taken over by Trinity Mid-Atlantic in 2018.

As coronavirus cases rise, 800 Bucks County nurses go on strike over ‘dangerous’ staffing levels
 

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Nearly 800 nurses at a Bucks County hospital went on strike Tuesday morning over what they describe as dangerously low staffing levels that prevent them from providing high-quality care to patients....

...The strike is planned for Tuesday and Wednesday, but PASNAP nurses will not be allowed back to work by their employer until Sunday because Trinity Health officials say that’s how long it will take to safely transition work away from the replacement nurses. PASNAP says the replacement nurses were hired on a five-day contract...

 

 

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

PASNAP Mercy Fitz RN's signed new union contract  while 800 St. Mary's nurses walked 2 day strike line (both part of Trinity Mid-Atlantic) ; St. Mary's  RNS are locked out until Sunday morning.... so Einstein settled with it's nurses

 

Philadelphia’s Einstein nurses score victory after threatening to strike during coronavirus surge

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In a show of what essential workers can win in a pandemic, 1,100 nurses at Einstein Medical Center in North Philadelphia have reached a contract deal with their employer after threatening to go on strike during the current COVID-19 surge.

The deal includes a coveted “successorship” clause that ensures a future owner will honor the contract — a major victory for the nurses, as Einstein is slated to be acquired by Thomas Jefferson University, pending a federal judge’s decision on a Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit....

...The Einstein contract, which took nearly a year to bargain and was stalled by COVID-19, maintains protections against staffing reductions and adds about 17 full-time employees, the union said. It won nurses an average raise of about 7.5% over a 2½-year period. Under the new contract, a nurse with up to one year of experience makes $35 an hour, while the top of the wage scale, for nurses with more than 35 years of experience, is nearly $53 an hour.

 

 

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Updating St Mary's contract post strike:

Bucks County Courier Times

St. Mary nurses ratify five-year pact calling for 18% overall increase in pay
 

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Nurses at St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown ratified their first union-won contract Saturday, a pact that calls for an 18% increase in pay over five year....

...The new contract — ratified by 96% of the nurses — meets several of their demands,  including safe staffing, better wages, fair and transparent policies, and a continued voice in issues such as scheduling and grievance procedures. It was negotiated under the leadership of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, the union which St. Mary nurses joined last year. ,,,

,,,The contract places St. Mary nurses on a wage scale based on years of nursing licensure. The nurses will see annual salary increases plus increases when they move to the next step on the scale.

"Nurses placed on the scale will see an average increase of 5% following ratification. In subsequent years, the scale will increase by 3%, 3%, 4% and 3% for an overall increase of 18% over the life of the contract, not including step increases," PASNAP announced.

The pay scale starts at $32.10 an hour for a newly hired nurse fresh out of nursing school.

The contract also calls for provisions to ensure the hospital "hires and schedules enough nurses to meet its staffing guidelines and that the guidelines cannot be changed without prior discussion with the nurse union representatives."...