Medical techs at Temple’s Jeanes Campus vote to unionize

Technical specialists working at Temple University Hospital-Jeanes Campus voted to unionize last week, becoming the latest group of workers in the health system to form a collective bargaining unit in the past year.

Nearly 85% of the roughly 125 techs who work at the Northeast Philadelphia campus participated in the election, which was administered by the National Labor Relations Board. Eighty percent voted in favor of unionization.

Temple Health decline to comment for the story.

The health-care staffers — including X-ray techs, surgical techs, and respiratory therapists — will be represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which has been representing the hospital’s nurses.

Temple’s techs are seeking from its management improved staffing levels and greater efforts to retain experienced workers, said Amanda Rosario, a certified surgical tech at Jeanes. She has seen many of her colleagues retire since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Management has extended the hours of techs contributing to burnout, she said.

“We noticed that the union was definitely working for the nurses,” Rosario said, pointing to restrictions in their union contract that limit hours of work.

» READ MORE: At these two Temple hospitals, 2023 was a big year for unionizations

Last summer, the techs at Jeanes also watched their peers at the adjacent Fox Chase Cancer Center unionize. The workers at the Temple-owned specialty hospital had formed a union because of similar concerns.

“Seeing the techs at Fox Chase win the election definitely gave us a huge boost,” Rosario said.

Other recent groups of employees to unionize include nurses and techs at Fox Chase, as well as the nurses and techs at Chestnut Hospital.