Nurses at Chestnut Hill Hospital are threatening to strike over contract negotiations with Temple Health
This will be Chestnut Hill staff’s first contract with the health system after they unionized in 2023.
Unionized nurses and medical technicians at Chestnut Hill Hospital said at a news conference Wednesday that Temple Health, which owns a majority stake in the hospital, is not bargaining in good faith as staff seek to sign their first contract with the health system.
Unions representing nurses and techs at Chestnut Hill and techs at Temple University Hospital-Jeanes Campus, part of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, voted earlier this month to authorize a strike if contract negotiations break down.
Jeanes nurses finalized a contract with Temple last year.
On Wednesday, several dozen nurses and technicians gathered outside Chestnut Hill Hospital with signs reading “we’re strike ready” and “shame on Temple Health.”
This will be the Chestnut Hill staff’s first contract with the health system after they unionized in 2023, following Temple’s purchase of a 60% stake in the hospital. The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Redeemer Health own the rest.
Twania Stinson, a medical lab technician at Chestnut Hill involved in bargaining talks with the health system, said union representatives have offered concessions to stave off proposed pay cuts for some nurses and other staff.
“They’re denying everything that we’re asking for. They’re not trying to negotiate with anything. Everything is ‘No,’” she said.
In a statement, a Temple spokesperson said that the hospital is “committed to signing labor agreements that do right by our employees and preserve our ability to keep providing our patients and community with the high-quality care they deserve.” They noted that the health system has successfully negotiated contracts with other union bargaining units.
One of the union’s primary concerns at Chestnut Hill is keeping an adequate level of staffing at the hospital, said James Smith, an ICU nurse who has also participated in bargaining sessions.
He criticized the hospital’s recent approach to the typical rise and fall of patient populations. Over the past several weeks, he said, one nurse has cared for two patients apiece in the ICU, a ratio that nursing unions have long advocated for. But for the last few days, an influx of new patients means ICU nurses are caring for three patients at a time, he said, giving them less time to monitor critically ill patients.
Instead of hiring more full-time nurses, he said, Temple Health has hired travel nurses, who work temporary shifts in hospitals for weeks or months at a time, offering higher pay than Chestnut Hill’s full-time staff.
Temple said that staffing levels at all of its hospitals are higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic and that the health system continues to recruit “ambitiously” to fill open positions.
Union members said that the health system has also proposed cutting some nurses’ pay by $4 an hour, and some techs’ pay by $3.50 an hour. And though other longtime staff at the hospital, like phlebotomists, have been offered raises in contract proposals, members say the proposed raises on the table are too low — especially considering that newer hires have been offered higher salaries.
A Temple spokesperson said that the health system was proposing moving away from a pay system instituted while Tower Health owned the hospital that gave employees on particular units additional pay.
The spokesperson said Temple has instead proposed paying employees based on their experience, which would result in pay increases “for the large majority of nurses at Chestnut Hill Hospital.”
Some staff who attended Wednesday’s news conference said the health system does not pay them enough to get by.
“We’re here to provide the community with health care, and Temple is not providing us with adequate health care and pay. It’s incredibly difficult for us to do our jobs with the standards that Temple provides,” Smith said.
Rayderson Distin, a technician at Chestnut Hill, is tasked with sterilizing surgical instruments before operations. He also works a second job to make ends meet, he said.
“The value of our paychecks are low. The volume of our work is steadily increasing,” he said. “To the Temple health-care executives, I ask you, can you make it so that I can afford groceries and rent without compromising time with my family?”