Nurses and technicians at Temple Health-Chestnut Hill Hospital have scheduled a strike vote for Wednesday, March 19, after delivering a strike petition to hospital management on Monday, March 3. The vote comes nearly a year after unionized staff began negotiations with Temple Health, and critical issues of staffing ratios and wages remain unresolved.

"They want to cut wages and don't want to discuss any staffing. We are almost a year into the negotiations, and we feel that we are at a standstill," said Barbara Strain, a registered nurse with 20 years of experience at the hospital.

“As mentioned previously, we are proud of the fact that we have successfully negotiated mutually beneficial nursing contracts at Temple University Hospital – Main Campus, Temple University Hospital – Jeanes Campus and most recently Fox Chase Cancer Center,” a spokesperson for Temple Health told the Local. “We are working hard to do the same at Temple Health – Chestnut Hill Hospital. It takes two sides to come to an agreement.” 

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) union, which Chestnut Hill Hospital staff voted to join in December 2022, has emphasized two primary concerns: inadequate staffing levels and proposed wage reductions by hospital management.

Staffing concerns

According to James Smith, an ICU nurse and union member, nurses in the Intensive Care Unit regularly care for three patients each, despite industry standards calling for one nurse per one or two patients.

"Simply put, to staff the hospital adequately, a three to one ratio in an ICU is ludicrous. It's dangerous and the liability is through the roof," Smith said. "You cannot be in three places at the same time. It's hard enough being in two trying to save these lives."

Smith noted that at one point in negotiations, hospital officials proposed a staffing grid that included two-to-one patient ratios for the ICU. "Within a week or two, they completely reneged on it," he said. "Now, when we talk to them about adequate staffing, they say 'We're trying to hire, we're trying to hire.' When I speak to my manager, he says the very same thing. What he ends up hiring are agency nurses that cost them a lot more money."

Nurses say these staffing issues began under the hospital's previous owner, Tower Health, but have continued since Temple Health's majority acquisition of the hospital in January 2023.

Wage disputes

Union representatives previously told the Local that rather than increasing pay to match market rates, management has threatened to reduce wages by $3.50 to $5 per hour for all nurses.

"Temple is demanding pay cuts for a significant number of nurses and tech in some of the most critically understaffed areas of the hospital," Strain told the Local.

The hospital introduced "Nightingale pay" to certain departments during the pandemic to help retain nurses, but now union members say Temple Health threatens to take away that pay. Strain noted that in her 20 years at the hospital, which has changed ownership four times, Temple Health is the only owner that has threatened to cut wages.

Temple Health representatives have previously characterized the union's claims as "disingenuous."

In an interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal, Temple University Hospital CEO Abhi Rastogi reported financial progress at Chestnut Hill Hospital, citing the "emergency department growing from 34,000 visits at the end of 2022 to 45,000 in the 2024 calendar year."

Next steps

Union representatives emphasized that the scheduled strike vote does not mean a strike will immediately follow. Rather, it gives the bargaining committee the option to call a strike if deemed necessary.

"If they ultimately deem it necessary, they must give the hospital 10 days notice so that they can make arrangements for patient care," a union representative told the Local.

Strain, Smith, and other union representatives have stressed that they do not want to strike but feel they are nearing a dead end in negotiations.