Unionization momentum at Temple Health continues with workers at Fox Chase, Chestnut Hill Hospital

The wave of unionization among health-care workers at Temple Health-owned hospitals is not slowing down. Three employee groups in two hospitals petitioned to unionize this past week.

The research staff at the Fox Chase Cancer Center filed union petitions with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, becoming the fourth group to do so at the Northeast Philadelphia specialty hospital this year. The 91 workers run clinical trials at the National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.

On the same day, about 200 registered nurses and 80 technical specialists at Chestnut Hill Hospital filed paperwork with the NLRB. Temple acquired the hospital less than a year ago.

All three groups would be represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP. Temple Health and Fox Chase declined to comment on the organizing efforts.

» READ MORE: Chestnut Hill Hospital is now part of Temple University Health System

Similar to nurses and techs at other institutions, the staff at Chestnut Hill cited burnout due to high patient load as motivation for the organizing effort. Roughly 30% of direct-care nursing positions in Pennsylvania hospitals are vacant, according to a 2022 survey by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

“We need more staffing to care for our patients in the best way,” said intensive-care nurse Jim Smith, who is among the leading organizers at Chestnut Hill, via email.

The Office of Clinical Research at Fox Chase helps facilitate studies at the institution. Staffers handle insurance billing, collect patient data, and follow up with people enrolled in trials.

Clinical research nurses at Fox Chase were not part of the nurses group that unionized last summer, said Erin Holland, a clinical research data specialist at Fox Chase. Afterward, the clinical research nurses began exploring the possibility of unionizing the entire research staff. They hope that by forming a union they can improve their benefit packages to stop the high rate of turnover.

“I’m the most senior person in my cubicle of five people and I’ve only been here a year,” Holland said.

The clinical research staff could be the fourth group to unionize at Fox Chase this year. The nurses, techs, and phone-triage nurses in the hospital all voted to form unions in recent months.

» READ MORE: Fox Chase nurses vote to unionize, inspired by Temple’s contract. ‘We can have those things, too!’

Before workers can file a petition with the NLRB, they need to give the institution an opportunity to recognize the union voluntarily. The research staff informed hospital leadership of their desire to organize earlier this month, ahead of an all-staff town hall.

The research staff arrived early to fill the seats of the auditorium in which the regularly scheduled town halls take place. Holland stood up front with a few of her colleagues who led the effort. Holland and nurse educator Diane Creitz read CEO Robert Uzzo a short statement about their intent to unionize.

“I was shaking pretty bad,” Holland said.

She volunteered to read because she feared that no one else would, and that the group would lose their opportunity to publicly address leadership.

“I didn’t want to lose momentum,” she said.