Nurses and techs vote to unionize at Temple’s Chestnut Hill Hospital

There are two new union locals at Chestnut Hill Hospital.

In separate elections administered by the National Labor Relations Board, technical specialists and registered nurses at the Temple Health-owned hospital each voted Monday to form collective-bargaining units to represent them. The new locals will be part of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP, and will represent roughly 80 techs and 200 nurses.

PASNAP said that 92% of the techs and 73% of the registered nurses voted in favor of unionizing.

“So many people wanted the union because of a desire for change,” said Kadena Smith-Fleming, a licensed practical nurse at Chestnut Hill who is part of the techs union.

» READ MORE: Unionization momentum at Temple Health continues with workers at Fox Chase, Chestnut Hill Hospital

The issues that motivated the organizing effort are similar to grievances raised by nurses and techs in other institutions, such as burnout due to high patient load and demand for improved benefits.

Smith-Fleming believes that as part of a union, the nurses and techs can affect change.

“Not having a union, you are at the mercy of hospital management,” she said.

Temple Health declined to comment on the unionization vote.

The Chestnut Hill workers are the latest to form a union at Temple-owned hospitals in recent months. The nurses, techs, and phone-triage nurses at Fox Chase Cancer Center all voted to form unions in the summer and fall, and the workers who run clinical trials at the specialty hospital filed unionization petitions last month.