Prime Healthcare nurses begin five-day strike with Christmas-themed picket

Dozens of nurses marched in front of an 11-foot inflatable Grinch outside of Lower Bucks Hospital Friday morning, holding signs that said “Only a Grinch would take away our staffing” and “All I want for Christmas is quality health care.”

The protesters were among 240 unionized nurses at the Bristol hospital and Suburban Community Hospital in East Norriton who began a five-day strike Friday after contract negotiations with their employer, Prime Healthcare, reached an impasse.

The hospitals will remain open during the strike.

» READ MORE: Nurses at Lower Bucks Hospital and Suburban Community Hospital are on strike. Here’s what to know.

“We are out here showing them that they can’t waste our time,” said Maria Valletto, an ICU nurse at Lower Bucks, holding a sign that read “Caution! Unsafe staffing ahead.”

Michelle Aliprantis, a spokesperson for Prime, called the strike “disappointing,” but said all of the hospital’s services would continue without disruption to patient care.

“We are fully staffed with qualified temporary resources across our nursing and non-nursing departments,” Aliprantis said.

The nurses are negotiating for higher staffing levels and better health-care benefits. They are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP. Their contract expired Oct. 12.

The union wants Prime to hire and retain more nurses, so that each nurse cares for fewer patients at once.

“We just want to take care of our patients and do it safely,” said Terena Stinson, an ER nurses who has worked at Suburban Community for 32 years.

The union and Prime are also deadlocked over health-care benefits. Prime requires its nurses to seek care at Prime facilities, but in recent years has cut services, making it harder to access care, said Shannan Giambrone, an ICU nurse who has worked at Suburban Community for 23 years. When they seek care outside of network, nurses have challenges getting reimbursed.

Nurses also want a wage increase, and claim their current wages do not meet industry standards.

The health system has offered the nurses more money and health care benefits that are competitive with other hospitals in the area, said Aliprantis, the Prime spokesperson.

“It is disappointing that despite progress being made, the union has walked away from negotiations and has chosen to strike,” she said in an email.

Unions commonly authorize a strike during contract negotiations, but they typically do not carry through on the threat.

The strike at the two Prime hospitals is the first by hospital nurses in the region in more than three years. The last one was in November 2020, when nearly 800 nurses from St. Mary Medical Center walked off the job. The nurses returned to work at the Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic hospital in Bucks County after five days.

The Prime nurses voted to limit their strike to five days because they were concerned about their patients, said Giambrone, the ICU nurse.

“It really is one of the saddest days of my career,” she said.

Friday morning, Giambrone and her colleagues held up signs that warned “if the nurses are outside, something is wrong on the inside” as cars passing by slowed and honked in support.

Several elected officials, including State Sen. Frank Farry and State Rep. Kathleen Tomlinson, both Republicans from Bucks, joined the nurses.

County Commissioner Board Chair Bob Harvie, a Democrat, told the crowd that the Bucks County Board supports the nurses. He and his son were both born at Lower Bucks Hospital, he said.

“The love and the care that you give to your patients every single day is what keeps this place running,” Harvie told the rallying nurses.

Prime appears to have put three area hospitals, including the two strikebound facilities, up for sale, according to an email notice earlier this week from a Los Angeles investment bank. The notice did not identify the owner, but the description of the three hospitals fits the local Prime locations.

» READ MORE: Three Philadelphia-area hospitals are for sale

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 Pennsylvania, Prime hospitals include Philadelphia’s Roxborough Memorial Hospital and Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol. Suburban Community Hospital in East Norriton is also part of the Prime system, but it is owned by the company’s nonprofit arm, Prime Healthcare Foundation.

The striking nurses said their demands will remain the same, even if the hospitals’ ownership changes.

“What is safe care for patients and responsible treatment of employees doesn’t change when the employers changes,” Giambrone said.