A third group of health-care workers form a union this year at Fox Chase Cancer Center
The vote of the nurses who answer patient calls at the specialty hospital in the Northeast follows that of bedside nurses and techs this summer.
The nurses who answer the calls of concerned patients at Fox Chase Cancer Center voted to unionize on Thursday. The 22 nurses were excluded from the union vote of a much larger group of nurses at the Northeast specialty hospital who formed a union in June.
All 20 nurses who participated in the National Labor Relations Board-administered election voted in favor of unionization, according to the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which will represent the nurses.
“Now we can bargain together for a contract that addresses what our patients and staff need most,” said Rossana Caputo, a Fox Chase phone triage nurse, in a statement.
» READ MORE: We want to hear your thoughts about this and other health-related articles. Please fill out our Eds and Meds survey.
In June, roughly 350 bedside nurses at the cancer hospital formed a bargaining unit after a majority voted in favor of unionization. In addition to increase in benefits, nurses said they felt stretched thin caring for too many patients.
Hospital management argued that the nurses who answer patients calls should be a separate bargaining unit than the rest of the center’s nurses because they do not physically care for patients, Caputo previously told The Inquirer. She said that the phone nurses had similar grievances to their peers at the bedside.
After the Thursday vote, Caputo said she was thrilled that her department stuck together, even though their union vote came months after most of the hospital’s other nurses had already unionized.
Fox Chase is one of two National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in Philadelphia and has been part of the Temple University Health System since 2012.
» READ MORE: Fox Chase nurses vote to unionize, inspired by Temple’s contract. ‘We can have those things, too!’
In November, unionized nurses and technical workers at Temple University Hospital won a three-year contract that included new staffing standards and security requirements at Temple hospital entrances. Other health-care workers in Pennsylvania, including Fox Chase’s nurses and techs, were inspired to pursue similar protections.
Hospital spokesperson Jeremy Moore, in an emailed statement, acknowledged the phone nurses’ vote.
“We respect their decision and look forward to a fruitful negotiation,” he said.