More than 2,000 nurses and techs edge closer to strike at Temple Hospital
A strike at Temple isn't inevitable, but nurses and technicians unions are taking steps to allow it.
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Temple University Hospital’s nurses and technicians unions took a tangible step toward striking this week amid negotiations over a contract that expired last month.
About 95% of the members of the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association and Temple Allied Professionals, which together represent about 2,250 workers, voted Thursday to give their unions the power to send hospital administration a strike notice. The unions have not committed to sending that notice, but if they do it would trigger a 10-day countdown that could end with nurses and technicians walking out if a new contract isn’t approved.
“We have very reasonable offers on the table, chief among them a proposal that would ensure safe staffing in the hospital,” said Mary Adamson, president of the TUNA and an ICU nurse, in a statement Friday. “That’s what we want.”
The two unions’ most recent contract expired Sept. 30. Negotiations are ongoing, according to a statement from Temple, which said a strike wouldn’t disrupt hospital operations.
“We are hopeful of avoiding a strike by PASNAP (Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals) but, as you would expect, we have processes in place to provide uninterrupted, safe, quality care to our patients regardless of what occurs,” said Jeremy Walter, a spokesperson for the hospital.
The unions say existing staffing issues were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Temple was flooded with COVID patients in 2020, forcing the hospital to convert a gymnasium into space for the sick. Nurses shouldered enormous workloads, with some saying at the time that medical and surgical units saw exhausting ratios of six to seven patients per nurse. Burnouts, retirements, and resignations followed.
Over the last three years, the ratio of nurses to patients at Temple Hospital has declined by 15%, according to PASNAP.
The hospital needs to dedicate more money to retaining workers, union representatives said. Workers are planning a rally at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which is hosting a conference for nurses, at noon on Friday.
Temple has offered wage increases, Walter said, that would make nurses there the highest paid among the region’s academic medical centers, and offered more competitive pay increases to technicians.