Labor & Employment Law

Temple Health Care Workers Ratify Contract

By James Parks

Striking workers at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia yesterday ratified a new contract by a huge margin?1,045 to 30. After three ratification votes held throughout the day, the members voted 97 percent in favor of the deal.

After 28 days on strike and no contract since September, some 1,000 nurses and 500 health professionals, all members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), will return to work Friday.

The contract maintains tuition reimbursement benefits that Temple had threatened to terminate and does not include the gag order the hospital had been demanding.

Bill Cruice, executive director of PASNAP, said:

Temple’s proposed unacceptable conditions would be in our contract today if we had not stood together to resist their effort to weaken our union. The contract is a testament to the strength of our union and the commitment of our 1,500 members at Temple.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 29, 2010 (boomark / email).