Labor Union Blog

In Philadelphia this morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George in pledging the union movement’s support for an impending strike by Temple University Hospital’s 1,500 nurses and professional and technical employees. Shortly before the press event, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) delivered a 10-day strike notice to the hospital.

The employees have been without a contract since last September, and Bill Cruice, Executive Director of PASNAP, said “Temple is on a reckless path.”

They are willing to spend more money on imported strikebreakers than it would take to settle a fair contract. We know from other healthcare strikes that patients’ lives will be put at risk by the strikebreakers, who are flown in from all around the country in search of quick money.

Trumka put it this way:

We will not allow Temple Hospital, an institution supported by taxpayer funds, to thumb their noses at these workers or the union movement. And we’re going to enlist the help of political leaders who consistently support Temple’s repeated requests for additional funding.