Nurses at Temple’s Jeanes Hospital approve a new three-year contract
The nurses took the first step toward a strike last February as negotiation stalled.
Nurses at Temple University Hospital-Jeanes Campus approved on Monday a new three-year contract that includes wage increases.
Jeanes’ nurses will receive a 3% wage increase in each of the contract’s years, according to the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents the nurses.
Other contract provisions include: a bonus for full-time nurses, creation of a new committee with nurses and administrators to review staffing issues, and a week of paid leave for nurses who experience workplace violence.
The vote ends months of negotiations, and the threat of a strike. The previous contract for the roughly 375 nurses working at the Jeanes campus in Northeast Philadelphia expired last November. The nurses voted in late February to allow their union’s bargaining committee to hand Temple a 10-day strike notice.
» READ MORE: Nurses and techs at Fox Chase authorize a strike as negotiations for their first union contracts drag on
Nearly 190 of the nurses voted on the new contract, and 90% of them voted to approve.
“[The contract] is a testament to the good that can happen when employers and employees come together for the benefit of the organization as a whole,” Kim O’Connell, a critical-care nurse at Jeanes, said in a statement.
Temple did not respond to request for comment on deadline.
More than 500 nurses and techs at Fox Chase Cancer Center, which is adjacent to Jeanes, continue to negotiate with Temple for their first contracts.