New hospital pact goes to vote
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After months of negotiations and a recent strike notice, Warren General Hospital and the union representing its nurses have reached a tentative agreement.
That agreement was reached by the negotiating committees on Monday.
A vote on ratification by the full local membership of PASNAP (Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals) is scheduled to take place today.
The previous contract expired on Sept. 30. The union members have been working under the terms of the previous contract, but not under a formal extension.
In October, the union held an informational picket outside the hospital with more than 100 people participating throughout the day. Key areas of union concern include wages, benefits, and staffing levels.
Also in October, Warren General Hospital spoke of its efforts to reach an agreement. "We love our nurses," the hospital's negotiating committee's lead negotiator Mark Kuhar said. "We value our nurses. They're professional."
"This place closes if we don't have fantastic, hard-working nurses," he said.
The union approved a strike notice on Saturday, Dec. 11.
The National Labor Relations Act requires all labor organizations to give health care employers a minimum of 10 days' notice before a strike to ensure the safety of the patients within the facility.
In a news release issued Saturday, the 114 frontline nurses and health-care workers who make up the Warren General Hospital Professional Employees Association (PEA) noted they have been on the front lines of the COVID crisis for more than 18 months, "willingly sacrificing their own health and endangering their families to care for the Warren community and keep the doors of the hospital open.
The notice set up the potential for a strike to begin days before Christmas.
The union has rescinded that strike notice as a result of the signed tentative agreement.