‘We did it!’: West Penn nurses celebrate their new contract

Before Joanne Germanos had a chance to approach a podium to make her announcement, someone in the crowd called out, “We did it!”

Germanos had to agree. Wearing the blue scrubs of her profession and standing before several of her colleagues who’d gathered in a small park across from West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield, she repeated the declaration: “We did it, we did it, we did it.”

What Germanos and her fellow union nurses at West Penn did was win a new contract that raises pay and addresses staffing and burnout issues that the nurses say have been pushing experienced nurses out of the profession. Ninety percent of the hospital’s union nurses voted to approve the contract Wednesday.

Under the three-year deal, pay for nurses will rise an average of 24%, with some seeing increases as high as 35%. By contract’s end, all nurses will make at least $40 an hour; nurses with 20 years of experience will make at least $50 an hour.

That’s a big change for nurses such as Germanos, a labor and delivery nurse who’s been on the job for 32 years.

“Four years ago, before we formed our union, my pay as an experienced nurse was capped at less than $40 an hour with really no hope of rising above,” she said. “Because of this, I saw far too many experienced, knowledgeable nurses leave the bedside to pursue better paying jobs.”

Low pay has been a major issue for nurses, and it contributes to Pennsylvania’s nursing crisis: The commonwealth is expected to experience a shortfall of more than 20,000 nurses, the worst in the nation. Germanos and others say many nurses can’t afford houses because they’re not making enough to save for a down payment. 

Pay, however, isn’t the only issue. At rallies, union nurses have called on hospital administrators to address staffing and scheduling problems that can affect patient care and cause nurse burnout. They took those concerns to the bargaining table and, on Thursday, said they were thrilled with the outcome.

“Having staffing guidelines in place will make a world of difference,” Germanos said. “That contributes to a lot of nursing burnout — not having proper staffing and trying to push too many patients on one nurse. It really affects patient safety and patient care.”

The hospital also agreed to stop rotating nurses between day and night shifts, she said. Such rotations, often in a single week, exhausts nurses, Germanos said.

Jodi Faltin, a post-anesthesia care nurse and a member of the union’s bargaining committee, expressed relief that the contract protects nurses’ health care benefits. She’s due to give birth to her first child in a few weeks and now is assured that her medical costs won’t skyrocket. 

“I’m excited to be cared for by these dedicated nurses at the hospital I love and care so much about,” she said.

The nurses celebrated not just their contract but also the contract won earlier this week by nurses and hospital workers at Allegheny Valley Hospital and last year by nurses at Allegheny General Hospital. All are Allegheny Health Network facilities. The lack of representation of nurses at UPMC, the other Pittsburgh-area health care giant, did not go unnoticed.

“I came from a nonunion UPMC hospital before coming here,” Faltin said, “and it’s hard to overstate the difference I have seen working at a facility where nurses actually have a seat at the table. During this process we saw just how much power we have when we stand together.”

She praised her colleagues on the bargaining committee for putting in the time and effort to bargain while balancing their full-time jobs and family schedules. Agreements such as the one they reached can “change the dynamic in our healthcare system.”

After the press conference, Faltin went into more detail about making the transition from working in a non-union to a union hospital to one in which she has union representation. Before accepting a job at West Penn last year, she was employed for nearly a decade at UPMC facilities.

“The culture is different,” she said. “Feeling like you’re not just going to be told what’s happening to you when you come into work, that you actually have a say, is huge. It takes some getting used to, but it’s a good change.

“West Penn four years ago did not have a union, did not have a contract,” Faltin continued. “It’s important for UPMC nurses and all UPMC health care workers to know that you can get to this point. You have to come together, and you can do it. It’s going to be hard, but it’s obvious that we can get there together.”

Here are a few other highlights:

“It’s not just about the folks standing behind me and the wages that they’re going to be able to take home to their households and their families, which will have a generational impact on families throughout our region.

“This is about an investment in patient care and safety. This is about an investment in health care workers that are going to come after we are all long gone. [West Penn nurses] are setting a precedent that they are going to stand up and make sure that every single employee that walks through these doors will be treated with dignity and respect and have a wage that’s commiserate with that.”

— Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato

“This demonstrates what we can do when we stand together. Particularly when we stand up for those that we know at the end of the day take care of our babies, take care of our elderly, take care of our sick.

“These nurses have paved the way and created opportunities for the next generation. The next generation, when they come in they won’t have to fight for wages that don’t identify with the work they do. These wages will now be in place to give them the opportunity to focus on their trade and do what’s necessary. That’s what I’m saying about the power of a union, the power of us working together, the power of us standing together.”

— Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey