Nurses On Strike At Armstrong County's Only Hospital
ARMSTRONG COUNTY (KDKA) -- Nurses at Armstrong County's only hospital are now on strike.
They walked off the job just a short time ago after failing to reach an agreement on contract negotiations.
They have been picketing since around 7 a.m. Sunday morning, and they have their signs saying what they want and how they feel.
And how they feel, after talking with a few of the nurses, is underappreciated, undervalued and just burnt out.
They tell KDKA they are in the middle of a staffing crisis because, over the past year, more than 40 nurses have left Armstrong County Memorial Hospital for better-paying jobs in the area.
They say they have been fighting for a new union contract, but the hospital's latest offer was recently rejected by nurses who say it is too similar to current conditions or reduces protections.
The union added that they want safe staffing and investment in retention from the hospital.
"What we're asking for is to be respected and valued," said nurse Jerry Dunn. "We're having nurses leave this hospital in droves to other facilities. We're asking for competitive wages, we're asking for them not to pull our call-off language from our contract that's been in it for the last 20 years, and we're asking not to be pulled into departments that we're not comfortable working in. It's just not safe for our patients."
Armstrong County Memorial Hospital is disputing several of the union's claims, including issues about compensation:
"As for compensation, ACMH recognized the importance of recruiting and over four months ago presented the most lucrative and aggressive wage proposal in its history.The increase in wages in the first year of the contract range from 7% to 12% depending on years of experience, followed by a 4.5% increase in the second and third years. There are also increases to a number of premium pays in the compensation proposal."
They also dispute the union's stated complaints about staffing, saying "the union did not propose any changes to the staffing guidelines during the negotiations."
The nurses have said that they would love to be in the hospital helping people and doing their jobs but that they are waiting for a deal to get done.
Until a deal happens, the union says things will be like this until Friday.
The hospital says that patient care is not being affected in any way by the strike.
They say that President and CEO of ACMH John Lewis did not receive a pay raise of $600,000.