PHILADELPHIA – About 1,000 nurses and 500 professional health workers have been picketing the hospital for nearly a week. No new talks are scheduled and Temple has hired about 850 temporary workers to keep the building running.
Hospital officials say eliminating free tuition for employees’ children will allow about $5.5 million to be redirected toward patient care. The final contract offer, which included raises for both groups, is “fair, reasonable and competitive,” CEO Sandy Gomberg said in an interview Monday.
But Maureen May, head of the hospital’s nurses union, said the tuition perk is a key recruiting and retention tool for the urban hospital in gritty North Philadelphia.
And a proposed “gag clause,” which would restrict union members from publicly criticizing the hospital or its managers, could prevent nurses from advocating for patients or even grumbling about a bad day on their Facebook pages, she said.
“To me, that’s frightening,” May said Monday.
Gomberg said the “nondisparagement” language is directed specifically at the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents the nurses and professionals. The association has a history of “disparaging the hospital and its business practices” in union publications and to the media, Gomberg said.
Nurses will still be expected to voice concerns within the hospital, where Gomberg said there are various ways to address concerns about patient care.
