A group of union nurses clad in blue scrubs gathered in Friendship Park at noon Wednesday, chanted “More scrubs, less suits” with enough volume that their voices bounced off the red brick walls of AHN West Penn Hospital across the street, then announced they’d hold a strike authorization vote as early as next Wednesday if negotiators fail to reach an agreement on a new contract.
Thursday is the last scheduled day of bargaining between the nurses, represented by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, and West Penn, owned by Allegheny Health Network.
“It is our firm hope that we reach a deal” that meets the needs of nurses and patients, said Kari Xander, a registered nurse and member of the nurses’ bargaining committee. “But if we cannot, we will not hesitate to stand up for our patients, up to and including going on strike.”
Staffing levels and pay are major issues for the hospital’s 650 nurses. The hospital needs to hire 100 additional nurses to adequately meet growing patient needs, said emergency room nurse Jordan Markiewicz.
Pennsylvania, she said, is suffering from the worst nursing shortage in the nation, with 20,000 unfilled positions.
“When we have fewer nurses, we have less time with each patient,” she said. “It puts a moral strain on me when I don’t have time to help people in vital moments, like describing a scary procedure or providing emotional support to a patient and their loved ones in an emergency department on what is often the worst day of their lives.”
She said pay for nurses in Allegheny County lags far behind that of nurses across the state and the country. Nurses here are paid 5.3% less than the average Pennsylvania nurse, and 14% less than the average nurse nationally. She cited statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information and Analysis.
Markiewicz and her co-workers said they were inspired by union nurses at AHN’s Allegheny General Hospital, who last fall won a $40 an hour starting rate and significant pay increase for senior nurses. Such an investment in staff would allow West Penn to recruit new nurses and retain the current crop of experienced nurses, thus ending what Markiewicz called the hospital’s “revolving door” of nursing staff.
Rather than investing in permanent staffing solutions, she said, the West Penn has been spending money on temporary measures — for example, hiring “traveling” nurses who can make two to three times the pay of a staff nurse.
Mackenzie Reed told the crowd she was inspired to become a nurse after her father was diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma a decade ago. He was told he’d need immediate and aggressive chemotherapy in order to survive. Nurses proved critical to his survival.
“I came into this field because I saw how important nurses were,” Reed said. “They saved my dad.”
After the rally, Reed, a critical care nurse at West Penn, talked in more detail about the impact her father’s nursing care had on her career decision.
“My dad would not be home to eat dinner with us; he’d be at the hospital,” she said. “But we had a family there of nurses who would take care of him. That was real special to me at age 15. He still talks about his nurses to this day. He remembers all of their names.”
Providing that level of care these days is difficult, Reed said.
“To be able to provide that care to other families and patients who are in dire need is what I want to do,” she said. “With a staffing shortage I am working double to do so, and that’s creating a lot of nurse burnout for a lot of my co-workers and myself.”
After the news conference an AHN spokesperson said, “AHN remains committed to bargaining in good faith to reach a fair and competitive contract for our nurses.”
Here are some other highlights of the rally:
“A strike vote is coming, and that is not something any union takes lightly. But clearly remember this, and we say this very loud and clear, ‘We don’t want to go on strike, but make no bones about it, we’re sure as hell not afraid of it either.’
“This is another symbol that we built this country, we service it, we educate it, we protect it, and we stand with it. We are the American labor movement, and we’re not going anywhere.”
— Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council
“This is where I receive primary care. This is where I got stitches in my foot when I was 15 years old. Between here and Allegheny General is where my grandparents took their last breaths. This is where 4,000 babies are born [each year]. This is our hospital, and because it’s our hospital, we want our nurses to be treated with dignity and respect.”
— Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato
“When nurses say they need a contract that reflects the quality of care that they deliver to us, it’s a no-brainer. It should be a no-brainer that our nurses deserve safe staffing ratios, that they deserve pay, and they deserve benefits that help them to continue to do the incredible work they do.”
— U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale
Steve is a photojournalist and writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he is currently on strike and working as a Union Progress co-editor. Reach him at smellon@unionprogress.com.