Nurses at three Jefferson Health facilities want to unionize under the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, saying their effort addresses safety and quality of care concerns.
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Nurses at Jefferson Bucks Hospital filed paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board for an election to form a new union chapter at the hospital that, if approved, would represent 170 staff members.
In a separate filing, nurses at Jefferson Health — Center One, a primary care and outpatient facility in North Philadelphia, and Willowcrest, a skilled nursing center at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, are seeking membership in the existing nurses’ union at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia. If approved, the move would add 43 nurses from Center One and Willowcrest to Einstein Nurses United.
The organization efforts would bring more than 200 Jefferson Health nurses into union chapters affiliated with PASNAP.
At a news conference outside Jefferson Bucks Hospital in Langhorne Tuesday, nurses said they wanted to organize because hospital administrators have not heeded their concerns that understaffing, heavy workloads, and insufficient resources could harm patients and lead to staff burnout.
“Jefferson Bucks nurses are being asked every day to do more with less and less, and it’s getting harder and harder to feel like our concerns are actually being heard,” Ashley Bupp, an emergency room nurse at Jefferson Bucks Hospital, said in a statement.
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Jefferson Health accused PASNAP, which represents some 11,000 nurses and other healthcare professionals across Pennsylvania, of “promoting a narrative that serves its organizing efforts and ultimately, its own bottom line.”
Kiersten McCalmant, a nurse at Jefferson Bucks Hospital, said she and her colleagues were inspired to organize by the nurses at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital.
Einstein Nurses United, which represents nearly 1,200 nurses, signed a new contract earlier this year that gave nurses raises, strengthened staffing, and included protections against forced shift rotations.
“We saw what a great contract they had already, and the fact that they were able to stand together and win improvements, and protect what they already had,” McCalmant said in a statement. “We thought, if nurses at Einstein can bargain with Jefferson and be successful, why can’t we?”
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