Delaware County nurses see big gains in new contracts
Nurses at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Delaware County Memorial Hospital, Springfield Hospital and Rejuvenations at Fair Acres have won new contracts with wage increase meant to recruit and retain nurses and with staffing guidelines to enhance patient care.
At Crozer-Chester Medical Center, the nurses’ contract provides overall wage increases between 12 percent and 36 percent over the three years of the pact.
“Nurses and healthcare professionals have worked tirelessly and self lessly sacrificed during the COVID-19 pandemic at great personal risk to themselves, and they will continue to be called on to do so for months to come,” Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals President Maureen May, R.N., said. “With the positive resolution of these contract fights as the virus surge continues in our area, the needs of our dedicated frontline workers have been acknowledged and respected and their patient communities are further protected. We are thrilled.”
The contracts include members of eight PASNAP units.
The 530 nurses at Crozer-Chester Medical Center overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year deal on Dec. 19 that ensures they will be able to recruit and retain the staff they need and sets the bar for nursing salaries in the greater Philadelphia area.
For the first time, the nurses’ contract includes a minimum number of Registered Nurses to be staffed on every unit on each shift, allowing for adjustments to increase the number of Registered Nurses based on acuity and complexity of care. Crucially, the hospital cannot decrease these agreed-upon guidelines without negotiating with the union. As a part of this new contract, the nurses have added nursery positions, and admissions teams and an IV team.
Health care premiums will decrease for nurses and future cost will be capped so they cannot increase by more than 10 percent per year of the contract, ensuring that three years from now the staff at both DCMH and Crozer will pay less for health care than they do now.
All Crozer Registered Nurses will return to a single wage scale that will ensure a minimum 9 percent increase annually over the life of the contract. Most nurses will see about a 14 percent increase in wages with a select receiving wage increase of over 30 percent.
In addition, the nurses and management have agreed to return the weekend program with the immediate return of 39 premium rate, benefited weekendonly positions. By dedicated staff to work weekends this will ensure that the staff is full staffed and help to limit staff burnout.
“We have always placed our patients first,” Leslie Heygood, RN, president of Crozer-Chester Medical Center Nurses United/PASNAP, said. “The staffing guidelines we obtained in this contract give us the ability to provide them with the very best care possible and to attract and retain excellent nurses. We love our patients and our community - we’ll never stop fighting for them!”
At Delaware County Memorial Hospital, 400 nurses and technical workers won similar contract language around staffing, health care, a new weekend program and a new four-year contract with a new wage scale that will increase wages by at least 13 percent for all employees and some staff receiving increases of over 30 percent.
Three of the eight other Delaware County-based PASNAP unions won new three-year contracts that, like the Crozer-Chester nurses, include lowered healthcare rates, a consolidated wage scale and pay increases with every year of the contract. These include the Crozer Chester Paramedics Association; the Crozer-Chester Society of Pharmacists.; Rejuvenations at Fair Acres, a new local of PASNAP; and Crozer-Chester Association of Medical Professionals, another new local of PASNAP.
“Our new contract also establishes a subcommittee specifically to address the issues of jobrelated mental health and PTSD, which I think is particularly important,” Larry Worrilow, president of Crozer-Chester Paramedic Association, said.
Springfield Nurses United at Springfield Hospital won a oneyear contract that includes controls on health care rates and an average pay increase of over 6 percent.
The Crozer-Chester Association of Medical Professionals, representing non-nurse, non-paramedic and non-tech healthcare professionals at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, and the health care professionals at Crozer’s Rejuvenations at Fair Acres facility won first contracts that also include controlled cost health care rates, a single wage scale and an average of over 8 percent pay increases for the first year of the contract and 2.5 percent pay increases for each subsequent year of the pact.
“We are tremendously happy and relieved to have won our first contract, and we are thrilled to be able to begin to correct the inequities that have existed across the professional staff over the years,” Crozer physical therapist Marla Stoering said. “This will be a great foundation for us to continue to work to fix the issues that we face in healthcare every day.”
Prospect Medical Holdings owns 17 hospitals and a network of more than 162 outpatient facilities and clinics in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, where it owns the Crozer Health system. Crozer Health includes, in part, the Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Delaware County Memorial Hospital, Springfield Hospital and Rejuvenations at Fair Acres, an inpatient mental health facility serving a geriatric population.
PASNAP represents 8,500 nurses and health care professionals across the commonwealth.