Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) members held a press conference outside Temple Health - Chestnut Hill Hospital on April 16, informing the public of their staffing and wage concerns and reminding hospital officials that they “are strike ready.”

Nurses and technicians from Chestnut Hill Hospital on March 19 voted to grant their union bargaining committee the power to strike, if deemed necessary. 

The press conference took place outside Chestnut Hill Hospital. Nurses and technicians shared their stories along with PASNAP members from Jeanes Hospitals, who are also undergoing negotiations. 

Gathering on the sidewalk along Germantown Avenue, PASNAP members held signs reading “Shame on Temple Health,” and “Patients over profits,” waving them behind the speakers as passersby honked to cheer them on. 

Jen Reardon, a Temple Health spokesperson, provided a statement from Temple Health to the Local, reading, “We remain committed to signing labor agreements that do right by our employees and preserve our ability to keep providing our patients and community with the high-quality care they deserve.” 

The statement touted “mutually beneficial” nursing contracts negotiated with Temple University Hospital among others within their system, and added, “Bargaining was professional as each side worked together to produce fair agreements that focus on patient and employee wellbeing, as well as financial stability and growth.”

The Chestnut Hill Hospital nurses and techs voted, in separate elections, to unionize and join PASNAP in December 2023, 11 months after Temple became the primary owner of the hospital.

Kadina Smith-Flemming, a registered nurse at Chestnut Hill Hospital, said “Nurses at Temple have a storied history of being mistreated and pushed aside when it comes to our fight for fair wages and safe working conditions.” 

She called Temple Health's negotiating tactics “stonewalling, when all we seek is to take care of patients, ourselves, and our families.” 

PASNAP members 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.

Smith and Barbara Strain, an ICU nurse with 20 years of experience at Chestnut Hill Hospital, previously told the Local many nurses were optimistic when Temple purchased the hospital, hoping these issues would improve.

PASNAP members previously held an “informational picket,” outside the hospital on Nov. 4. The picket drew the support of a handful of local politicians with State Sen. Art Haywood, City Councilmembers Rue Landau and Nina Ahmad, and State Rep. Tarik Khan, all Democrats, joining the picket. 

According to James Smith, an ICU nurse and PASNAP member, since then, progress has been minimal. He said, “We're pushing two months,” since Temple Health officials last sat down with negotiators. 

Staffing issues

Smith said nurses in the Intensive Care Unit regularly care for three patients each, despite industry standards calling for one nurse per one or two patients.

Several PASNAP members spoke of these conditions, calling them dangerous for both nurses and patients. 

Strain told the Local, “It's physically demanding and mentally taxing to care for three patients at one time, as well as the family members that would also have to accommodate … There have been safety issues when we're short-staffed, especially when we have three patients.” 

Smith said it’s like trying to be in three places at once. He described the current staff shortage as “ludicrous,” particularly in the ICU, where risks are much higher than in other departments. 

Temple Health’s statement added “every Temple Health hospital and hospital campus has more nurses now than it did before COVID, including Chestnut Hill Hospital. We continue to recruit ambitiously to fill open positions.” 

Wage disputes

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

In response, the Temple Health statement read, “During the pandemic, Tower gave certain employees on particular units at Chestnut Hill Hospital additional pay via an ‘adder.’ We think it’s fairer for those employees to be paid based on experience, not what unit they work on. Tower also used to have a clinical ladder program, where nurses at Chestnut Hill Hospital would get paid more based on their position on the ladder.”

Temple Health said this ‘adder’ program no longer exists, but those nurses continue to receive additional pay. The statement added, “We don’t think it’s fair that some nurses are being paid more than others based on a nonexistent program. Our current proposals to PASNAP at Chestnut Hill would place employees on experience-based pay scales.”

In a Feb. 17, 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."

Rayderson Distin, a sterile processing technician at Chestnut Hill Hospital, said despite working full time, he’s “barely able to keep a roof over our heads and put food on the table.” 

Distin also works a second job as a group home manager and described his hospital wages as “shamefully low.” 

“I know a lot of people are leaving here to go to other hospitals,” Distin added. “Other hospitals are definitely paying more for my position and without my position there's no operations because we need sterile equipment, we need clean equipment.” 

Next steps

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

The strike vote on March 19 does not mean a strike will immediately follow. Rather, it gives the bargaining committee the option to call a strike. 

Megan Gorman, a PASNAP representative, told the Local, "if they ultimately deem (a strike) necessary, they must give the hospital 10 days’ notice so that they can make arrangements for patient care." 

Temple Health’s statement concluded, “Many hospitals in the region are struggling, some have closed, and others are up for sale. Whether there is a strike or not, uninterrupted quality care to our patients will continue as negotiators on both sides work hard to achieve a contract that we can all survive with.”

This story was updated to reflect the correct date the nurses and techs joined PASNAP.