Nurses at Lower Bucks and Suburban Community Hospitals return to work without a new contract after five-day strike

Nurses at Lower Bucks Hospital and Suburban Community Hospital returned to work Wednesday after a five-day strike, and without a new contract.

Nearly 240 nurses at the two Prime Healthcare-owned hospitals went on strike Friday after contract negotiations with their employer reached an impasse. They are asking for higher staffing levels, higher wages, and better health-care benefits.

The strike showed management that the nurses are unified in their demands, even though it did not lead to a breakthrough in negotiations, said Shannan Giambrone, an ICU nurse who has worked at Suburban Community for 23 years.

“We are a strong union,” Giambrone said. “We are together.”

Michelle Aliprantis, a spokesperson for Prime, said that the hospitals are continuing to “bargain in good faith.”

“We look forward to reaching an agreement that rewards our staff while also promoting the delivery of safe, high-quality care to our patients,” Aliprantis wrote in an email.

» READ MORE: Prime Healthcare nurses begin five-day strike with Christmas-themed picket

There are no scheduled bargaining sessions between Prime and the nurses, who are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

Based in Southern California, Prime Healthcare is one of the largest for-profit hospital systems in the United States, with more than 40 hospitals in 16 states.

In addition to Lower Bucks, in Bristol, and Suburban Community, in East Norriton, Prime also owns Philadelphia’s Roxborough Memorial Hospital.

Prime appears to have put the three area hospitals up for sale, according to an email notice from a Los Angeles investment bank just days before the strike. The notice did not identify the owner, but the description of the three hospitals fits the local Prime locations.

Nurses said they planned a five-day strike because they wanted to make a statement and inflict financial pain on their employer, but did not want to abandon their patients.

“This is not where we want to be,” Terena Stinson, an ER nurse who has worked at Suburban Community for 32 years, said during a picket in Bristol on Friday.

All hospital services remained open during the strike, Prime said.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania House approves bill to require nurse staffing minimums in hospitals

Elected officials from both parties joined the picketing nurses to express their support.

“I’m proud to stand with you here today!” state Rep. Kathleen Tomlinson, a Republican from Bucks County, told the nurses during a Christmas-themed picket on Friday.

Tomlinson is among the primary sponsors of the Patient Safety Act, a bill that would mandate nurse staffing minimums in hospitals. The legislation passed the state House over the summer and has since been stalled in the Senate.