Temple nurses threaten to strike
Friday, March 19th, 2010
By: Kerry Grens
kgrens@whyy.org
For the second time in less than six months, Temple University Hospital nurses and allied staff are threatening to strike. The nurses union says employees have been operating without a new contract since September.
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Union members and leadership from the state and national AFL-CIO gathered in front of Temple University Hospital to announce a possible strike, beginning March 31st.
Eakin: We're not going anywhere. We're going to stay here and fight for an adequate contract….applause
Patty Eakin is an emergency room nurse and the president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.
Eakin: We didn't want to have a strike at all, which is why we delayed and tried to continue to work with them. But now it's been six months of them refusing to move in any direction.
Bill Cruice is the executive director of the association.
Cruice: We have been working under the terms of an expired contract for six months now but Temple to this moment stubbornly refuses to change its position on several key areas.
Those key areas include resctrictions on union members speaking disparagingly about the hospital, and doubling co-payments on health insurance. Eakin says the main points of contention are employee contributions to health insurance, shift work requirements and wage increases.
Temple Hospital's CEO, Sandy Gomberg, says the hospital's latest contract offer was fair and competitive.
Gomberg: The negotiations are always about wages, benefits and working conditions. And we believe our last, best and final offer is fair and reasonable and competitive in the marketplace. But we're still pretty far about on the terms of wages, benefits and working conditions.
Gomberg says the only way to resolve those differences is at the table, and negotiations will need to continue. Gomberg says the hospital will remain open, with or without the union nurses being present.
You the girl Mare!!! keep it going?
I have been at temple for 18 years and I must say it is a mess. There was a time when people enjoyed coming to work. The adminstrators were visible and knew you by name these new comers stay locked in their offices making stupid decisions, unable to negotiate a decent contract. And we pay these people to do what? If not for the doctors who bring in the patients, the nurses who care for the patients, and the ancillary staff that assists us all none of these people would have a job. So while you are asking me to bend over and take one for the team how about this, you go first because I am am bending over every single day taking it all in while you are sitting in an office enjoying the fruits from my labor. Instead of screwing your staff a thank you would be appreciated.
When an employer tells you to go somewhere else for constitutional rights, but takes taxpayer money, it's a problem. Maybe we should take our taxpayer money and go somewhere else. As a matter of fact maybe I should take my healthcare insurance and go somewhere else, since all members of my family are temple patients!
Ms. Gomberg's comment that the only way to resolve the differences is at the table, while true, is laughable coming from her. The administration gave it's "last, best and final offer" back in September. Although meetings have been held over the months, the hospital has not negotiated in good faith. Hospital representative have shown up hours late for all of these meetings, keeping union representatives waiting. Infact, in two of the last three meetings, they wouldn't even come into the room with the union. In all of these meetings they have not budged an inch from their "last, best and final offer" although the union has presented new proposals with movement on the majority of key issues at each of these meetings. There is no real mediation or negotiation going on. The hospital has made it clear it's their way or the highway. The hospital's chief negotiator even went as far as to say, when discussing the gag clause that, "If you want your constitutional rights, go somewhere else!"