Unionized health care workers with Temple University Hospital authorize strike

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Unionized health care workers with Temple University Hospital have voted overwhelmingly to walk off the job.

More than 2,200 nurses and other union employees authorized a strike by a 95-percent margin during Wednesday's vote.

For now they remain on the job, pending further negotiations.

A rally is scheduled for Friday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The union representing the frontline workers - nurses, technical specialists, and professionals - is concerned about what they call unsafe staffing, workplace violence and limited resources.

"We have very reasonable offers on the table, chief among them a proposal that would ensure safe staffing in the hospital. That's what we want. That's what our patients want. That's what a hospital that cares about patient outcomes should want. Yet management has refused even to respond to our good-faith proposal regarding staffing," ICU nurse Mary Adamson, RN, president of the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association, said in a news release.

In a statement, Temple University Hospital said:

Bargaining is still ongoing, and we're working closely with the TAP and TUHNA unions to reach an agreement that allows us to keep doing what matters most: providing the highest-quality care to our patients. We are having thoughtful and respectful conversations and we look forward to continuing productive negotiations until we reach a contract conclusion. Our goal is to secure the region's best healthcare labor contracts for our team and for the patients we are committed to serving. Temple University Hospital has offered wage increases that would make our nurses the highest-paid of any of the region's academic medical centers, and has also offered to make many of our allied professionals the highest-paid in many of the region's academic medical centers. We are hopeful of avoiding a strike by PASNAP but, as you would expect, we have processes in place to provide uninterrupted, safe, quality care to our patients regardless of what occurs.