the union, which represents 1,500 nurses and other workers at the north philadelphia hospital, is threatening to hold a three-day strike starting oct. 2 if a new contract is not reached by the time the current agreement expires sept. 30
we have worked many hours at the bargaining table, but the hospital seems intent on ignoring the needs of patients and the dedicated staff here at temple," said maureen may, president of the nurses' union. "nobody wants a strike, but we are concerned about the future of patient care and the retention of professional staff."
union officials said the health system wants to increase employee health-care costs and forgo its promise to cover dependents' tuition at temple university. pasnap officials said staffing levels also remain a "serious concern."...
...temple said its nurses are paid "among the highest rates" in the delaware valley, making an average hourly rate of $39.80."
it proposal for the next three years is for no increase in the first year, followed by 2 percent increases in each of the following two years. for allied health professionals, the offer is no increase this year, following by 2 percent increases in the second and third years and 2.5 percent in the fourth....
Love the comment "Temple Hospital should be sued for false advertisment. Since when does the average nurse get paid $80,000 a year". That means they are paying their nurses at least $50 per hr. I would love to be making a third of that right now.
The strike is really a conundrum. It is not a good time to strike or ask for improved working conditions because it is an employer's market and but, the time to ask for change is now not not in the future.
Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
[color=#242424]temple hospital gags nurses, endangering patients: please help
[color=#242424]do you wish that your nurse had a gag order preventing her from speaking up on behalf of patients? should rns be fired for reporting on hospital safety errors? what about prosecuted for blowing the whistle on quack doctors or heartless healthcare corporations?
[color=#242424]unfortunately this is exactly what too many hospitals are trying to do in our nation today. ...
...[color=#242424] temple president ann weaver hart has proposed that her employees get disciplined whenever they criticize temple, regardless of whether they are stating facts or opinions. hart wants this to be written into the nurses' contract as a condition of their employment. that's right: speak up for your patients, lose your job....
this is a report - obviously from the union point of view, which i support - on the strike at temple university hospital by nurses and other professional and technical workers.
temple hospital wants to repeal the constitution
"if you want your constitutional rights, you need to go somewhere else."
-robert birnbrauer, human resources, temple university hospital
a strike by1500 nurses, healthcare professional and technical employees at temple university hospital represented by the pennsylvania of association of staff nurses and allied professionals (http://www.pennanurses.org/ )began this morning at 7:00am with a picket line that eventually grew to over 1200 for a noon-time rally. here is one local television clip from the rally: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7360394
at the height of the rally, all 1,200 put their hands across their mouths to protest the hospital's proposed hospital gag order. under the hospital's last offer, individual temple nurses and healthcare professionals could be disciplined or fired if the hospital believes they made a publicly disparaging comment about the hospital--what has become known as the "gag clause"--in other words any reporting of unsafe care or advocacy of patients.
what if eakin wants to testify in harrisburg about the dangers of low nurse-to-patient ratios, as planned? "how can i talk about that if i can't in some way reference my own workplace? they want to stifle our ability to advocate for things like that," she explained. "clearly, we've been documenting inadequate staffing at temple-and [administrators are] claiming, 'we need to keep things internal, and away from the public.' they want to have it both ways. 'stay within the hospital walls and we'll fix things.' but they don't."
safe patient care at stake
temple and conservative media want the public to think this strike is about money. an article on the pending strike in yesterday's temple news, http://temple-news.com/2010/03/30/nurses-strike-back/, a student newspaper, garnered tons of comments mostly from temple nurses expressing their primary motive--patient care.
a few examples:
"we are going on strike to protect the patients. presently temple has inadequate supplies and staffing to provide the best care for there patients. but they pay their ceo's millions. if my parent was in temple i would transfer them out to another hospital."
"we work in the poorest section of the city, with the highest morbidity and mortality in philadelphia. this community deserves people who will stand up for them and the care they deserve, because often they are not taken into account when politicians, and hospital administrators make decisions about healthcare. we are the voice for those who have none!! most of our temple nurses have been at the hospital for an average of 10-15 years and have at least 20-30 years of nursing experience within the community. we work for an organization that continuously charges the poorest, non-insured people the highest for health care."
"the nurse union is fighting for safe staffing for the patients, consistent working hours, adequate supplies and equipment, and the ability to stand up when we see something wrong without threat of losing my job. it's not about money"
temple is not afraid to spend tons of money to break the nurses
temple banked a $23 million net profit in fiscal year 2008, so they have lots to spend. they are robo- calling nurses throughout the country and offering them $10,000 a week to work as replacements for union nurses. the scab agency they have hired at great expense has placed 850 scabs, which is 850 more than should exist. the website of the primary strike breaking firm, health source global ( http://www.healthsourceglobal.com.) proudly proclaims the joys of strike breaking:
"travel with healthsource global staffingand have the time of your life! we offer roundtrip airfare or mileage reimbursement and provide private housing to all of our customers."
[color=#242424]this is one of the largest strikes by nurses in history. rns across the country send this support to the brave nurses, and we ask our allies to stand in solidarity as well. you can:
I think all RNs working today in any hosptial can relate. I work at a major University hospital and I support the Tempel RNs. Every day I feel that my every step, every word, every judgement is scripted and challenged. For the Tempel management to tell nurses that they do not need to worry about patient advocacy is utterly insulting. Is this 2010 or 1949??? For the administrators it just doesn't matter---we are the "workers" and should be glad for whatever they give us. Well some nurses are waking up, standing up and taking back our profession!!! Go Tempel Nurses!!! I am also getting ready to strike, not for money but for a say in protecting my patients!!! UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.
regarding how union people feel about those who act as "strike replacement workers", let me tell a small story.
i'm a cardiac rehab nurse, and our program has a maintenance program that some patients stay in for years. naturally we develop lasting relationships with those folks. one of our patients, august, had bad lung disease along with his heart disease and at one point he developed a pneumothorax that just would not resolve, so he was in the hospital for several weeks with a chest tube in. i'd stop by to visit him most days just to keep his spirits up. at that time we had been negotiating for our first contract for over a year after voting to organize and i was on the bargaining team. august was on old hard rock miner and umw member and one day he asked me how negotiations were going. i told him it was pretty tough. he said to me: "if you nurses strike, somebody's going to have to carry me out of here. i've never been on the wrong side of a picket line in my life and i'm not going to start now".
for a somewhat pithier view on the subject, i might also refer you to the great american author, jack london.
this is a report - obviously from the union point of view, which i support - on the strike at temple university hospital by nurses and other professional and technical workers.
temple hospital wants to repeal the constitution
"if you want your constitutional rights, you need to go somewhere else."
-robert birnbrauer, human resources, temple university hospital
a strike by1500 nurses, healthcare professional and technical employees at temple university hospital represented by the pennsylvania of association of staff nurses and allied professionals (http://www.pennanurses.org/ )began this morning at 7:00am with a picket line that eventually grew to over 1200 for a noon-time rally. here is one local television clip from the rally: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7360394
at the height of the rally, all 1,200 put their hands across their mouths to protest the hospital's proposed hospital gag order. under the hospital's last offer, individual temple nurses and healthcare professionals could be disciplined or fired if the hospital believes they made a publicly disparaging comment about the hospital--what has become known as the "gag clause"--in other words any reporting of unsafe care or advocacy of patients. quote]
gag rule? what reasonable, responsible professional direct care nurse would give up their duty to advocate for their patients? the hospital is getting reimbursed for nursing care. if administration wants to gag nurses who speak up and point out they don't have the supplies and staffing they need to provide that care safely and competently, then the hospital has overstepped their authority. the nurses have a duty to tell patients when unsafe conditions exist and the public has a right to know. the nurses are exercising their right to protest and change those circumstances that are against the interests of their patients.
kudos to pasnap. their members are not about disparaging the hospital, but they are with in their rights to demand accountability on behalf of the public. the nurses are trying to make it the best it can possibly be--it's the right thing to do! i hope if i'm ever sick or injured again, there will be nurses willing to make a stand like this to protect my interests as a vulnerable patient.
I used to work at a hospital that had a neurosurgeon that performed unnecessary surgeries and at times was too tired to stay awake during surgery. Nurses tried to tell administration that he was unsafe, but administration didn't listen. The hospital ended up on the front page of the Orange County Register (https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/lawsuits-charge-doctor-36991.html). This story was one in a string of stories about incompetency and greed in the Tenet Healthcare system that led to the fall of Tenet's credibility as well as its stock prices. Today, years later, Tenet's stock barely hits $6 or $7/share when before the scandals it traded in the $50s.
We point out problems because we want our patients to be safe. We want to be safe as well. When our warnings fall on deaf ears, as is often the case when the bottom line gets in the way, we still are obligated to protect our patients. Being able to tell DHS and state authorities about what is going on without fear of reprisal is essential.
I admire and totally support the Temple nurses and other workers who have placed patient safety as sacrosanct. And are not willing to be bullied into relinquishing this most important duty to their patients by the Temple administration. The Temple administrators on the other hand should be ashamed of themselves for wasting their funds on scabs instead of settling this.
Points of contention between the North Philadelphia hospital and 1,500 members of PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, include pay raises, the cost of health insurance, tuition benefits for employees' children, and random drug testing.
They are striking because management didn't want them to be drug addicts? Seriously? If you want to do that sort of thing I don't care. Just don't be a health care provider. What a silly point to strike on.
RNnbakes
176 Posts
Love the comment "Temple Hospital should be sued for false advertisment. Since when does the average nurse get paid $80,000 a year". That means they are paying their nurses at least $50 per hr. I would love to be making a third of that right now.
The strike is really a conundrum. It is not a good time to strike or ask for improved working conditions because it is an employer's market and but, the time to ask for change is now not not in the future.