Nurses plan to strike without contract
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
By: Elizabeth Fiedler
efiedler@whyy.org
More than 1500 registered nurses and technical and professional staff are set to strike unless they get a new contract to replace the current 3-year deal that expires September 30th. Temple University Hospital workers have notified the hospital that they're prepared to hit the picket line for three days starting October 2nd.
Listen:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Bill Cruice is the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals. He says outstanding issues revolve around recruitment and retention at the hospital, which operates in a complicated urban environment.
Cruice says sticking points include health care and staffing.
Cruice: Temple is proposing to eliminate a long standing promise of tuition benefits for Temple Hospital employees for Temple University. And quite frankly there are hundreds of nurses and physicians and respiratory therapists who work at Temple because of that benefit – because of that promise.
In a written statement, hospital officials say they will continue to provide the full array of services patients have come to expect, and that while the nurses' union is demanding wage increases, the hospital's current and proposed wages and benefits are competitive with other healthcare organizations in the region.
I hope you guys strike and lose! We all want raises but we just work harder for them, we don't throw temper tantrums.