Nurses, techs at ACMH reach deal with management
Five months after holding a weeklong strike in March, 317 nurses and technical professionals at ACMH in Kittanning reached a deal with the hospital on a three-year contract that provides wage increases and commitments to improve staffing.
The new contract, negotiated by representatives from ACMH Nurses United and ACMH Techs United — which are both affiliates of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurses and Allied Health Professionals (PASNAP) — guarantees nurses and techs will see their wages increase between 15-23% over the next two years, including additional compensation for experience.
“Signing the contract was a major victory for the union, its members and the community,” said Sandra Harrison, treasurer of ACMH Nurses United. “Our goal was to retain staff and recruit new nurses. Patient care was always our top priority. We are happy to announce a 15-23% wage increase to the members. We look forward to a better relationship with the hospital now that we are unified.”
The hospital plans to dedicate just under half a million dollars to additional nurse staffing in order to help with patient care and minimize nurse reassignment, according to a statement from PASNAP.
“Two and a half years into the worst pandemic of our lifetimes, the system that’s supposed to support healthcare professionals, and therefore patients, is in crisis,” PASNAP President Maureen May, R.N., a Temple University Hospital nurse, said in a statement. “Hospital staff numbers have dwindled nationwide due to burnout and short-sighted, bottom-line decisions. This contract, with its emphasis on measures to improve retention, acknowledges the contributions of frontline caregivers and by prioritizing their well-being, also prioritizes patient care. We are thrilled.”
The contract also adds enforceable staffing language for techs and licensed practical nurses to ensure successful recruitment and retention.
“There’s a staffing crisis in healthcare, and ACMH is no exception,” said Cris Scott, MLT(ASCP), president of ACMH Techs and LPNs United. “With this contract, our goal was to come up with wages and language that helps with retention and recruitment. I feel that management listened to all our concerns this time. They implemented a lot of our ideas that we gave them, through language that we secured in our contract, and I feel that we were able to achieve those goals.”
On the technician side, Scott said, recruitment and retention are a large concern.
“The wage package that they gave us will benefit both of those areas of retention and recruitment,” she said. “They really stepped up their game — they gave us raises across the board. They gave us raises and market adjustments to our wages, which is huge, because it will help recruit. We got step increases for your years of experience, which will help retain the staff that we have.”
The raises will help make ACMH comparable to other hospitals in the region, she said.
“Every place is short. There’s multiple jobs, and if you’re not happy, you can go somewhere else. This (change) makes us much more marketable. Health care in general is a competition to get your employees here.”
Scott is glad that the techs union was able to work with the nurses’ union to reach an agreement with management.
“Now we are aligned with the nurses, because the nurses also signed (Thursday night), too,” she said. “We are very happy we were able to make this happen. We feel that together, working with the nurses, being a joint sort of union, our voice is stronger, and we will have a bigger say in management, and this will help us provide better patient care.”
