Nurses At St. Mary Preparing To Strike Tuesday

LANGHORNE, PA — With coronavirus cases once again surging in Pennsylvania and throughout the country, nurses at St. Mary Medical Center are preparing to strike, saying they've been refused requests for more staff to deal with the outbreak.

Nurses at the Langhorne hospital plan to walk off the job on Tuesday and Wednesday to highlight what the union representing them calls a shortage of nursing staff. Speeches are scheduled to begin at noon each day, according to the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

According to the union, nurses at St. Mary have been pressing owner Trinity Health Systems for months to agree to increase staffing, saying that nurse and patient health is at risk.

"Safe staffing is the main issue in our negotiation — it's why we organized last year in the first place," said Kathy McKamey, a nurse at the hospital for the past 10 years. "Trinity has refused to commit to the minimal safe staffing guidelines every study out there has said improve patient outcomes. But the truth is, even if they had, we don't have the staff to fill them because our wage scale is so far below that of area hospitals."

In a written statement Monday, hospital officials said union negotiators turned down an offer that would have included increased wages on Nov. 13. That was after a Nov. 12 bargaining session ended without an agreement.

"While they strike, St. Mary is laser-focused on ensuring we continue to provide care for our community, especially in light of the pandemic's trajectory — case counts, hospitalizations and community transmission have all increased in our region," the statement said. "The qualified, professional agency nurses hired to provide care during the strike in collaboration with the remainder of our exceptional clinical teams are experienced and skilled in working with COVID and all patients needing healthcare services."

The statement says St. Mary "remains committed to bargaining in good faith" and hopes negotiations will resume soon.

In a news release from the union, McKamey said her unit, alone, has lost 20 nurses since January. She said they are able to make $6-7 an hour more working at other nearby hospitals.

According to the union, the emergency room at St. Mary has begun filling up with COVID-19 patients, who are having to wait for hours because there's not enough staff to take care of them. Some shifts are being staffed with half the nurses they need, the union claims.

Nurses at St. Mary voted to unionize last year and, since then, have been negotiating with Trinity on their first contract. They have held informational pickets at the hospital to highlight what they've called staffing shortages and claims that Trinity has dragged its feet on negotiations.

Trinity Health is one of the largest hospital networks in the United States, with 92 hospitals and 100 continuing care location in 22 states. Based in Livonia, Michigan, Trinity has annual operating revenues of $18.8 billion and assets of $30.5 billion.

St. Mary Medical Center is located at 1201 Langhorne-Newtown Rd. in Langhorne.