PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Temple University Hospital nurses held what they called a staffing crisis rally on Friday outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City.
The two nurses’ unions, currently in contract negotiations with the hospital, say the lack of proper staffing at their hospitals is one of their most pressing issues. Earlier this week, they authorized a strike if a deal cannot be reached.
Registered nurse Maryann Holsworth, membership chair of the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association (TUHNA), said the issue of safe staffing isn’t just a labor issue, but a public health issue.
“The ratios in the hospital are just untenable,” said Holsworth.
“At this point, good quality patient care is not being delivered. They refuse to pay us our value, and they're attempting to transfer the maternity [unit] out of North Philly, and that is the absolute exploitation of the weakest of our community.”
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Temple University Hospital announced in November the purchase of a building on East Wyoming Avenue. They plan to convert it into a women’s health center, with expanded maternity care.
TUHNA President Mary Adamson said amid stalled contract negotiations this week, union members voted to authorize a strike.
“In order to strike, we have to give the hospital a 10-day notice,” Adamson said. “We're hoping to give them a couple more chances to capitulate and give us what we deserve.”
Holsworth said the strike tactic would be used as a last resort.
“We are scheduled to negotiate four times next week with all of the best of hope for these things,” said Holsworth. “We don't want to strike, we're getting forced into a situation.”
Adamson said what nurses deserve are proper working conditions and a living wage.
“They made $231 million last year, and they made it by short-staffing from the loading dock to the IT desk,” said Adamson, as her colleagues marched outside the convention center where the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet conference is taking place.
She said the nurses there helped the hospital achieve Magnet status in 2019, something Temple Health called “the highest honor a health care organization can receive for nursing excellence,” one that only 8% of hospitals receive.
“And as soon as they got this designation, they took the staff away,” Adamson said.
Now, as part of their seemingly stalled contract negotiations, Adamson said nurses want a contract that includes safe-staffing language.
“It's a very reasonable ask,” she said.
“We also want a wage increase that is commensurate with the massive amount of work we've done in the last three years being the hospital with the most COVID patients in Philadelphia.”
The following is a full statement from Temple Health:
Bargaining is still ongoing, and we’re working closely with the TAP (Temple Allied Professionals) and TUHNA unions to reach an agreement that allows us to keep doing what matters most: providing the highest-quality care to our patients. We are having thoughtful and respectful conversations and we look forward to continuing productive negotiations until we reach a contract conclusion. Our goal is to secure the region’s best healthcare labor contracts for our team and for the patients we are committed to serving. Temple University Hospital has offered wage increases that would make our nurses the highest-paid of any of the region’s academic medical centers, and has also offered to make many of our allied professionals the highest-paid in many of the region’s academic medical centers. We are hopeful of avoiding a strike by PASNAP but, as you would expect, we have processes in place to provide uninterrupted, safe, quality care to our patients regardless of what occurs.