Allegheny Valley Hospital nurses, staffers want the same deal offered to Allegheny General staff

Allegheny Valley Hospital nurses and staffers threatening to strike say they want to get the same deal Allegheny Health Network made with its employees at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Service Employees International Union members and supporters held a vigil outside Allegheny Valley Hospital along Carlisle Street in Harrison Thursday evening that was attended by about 100 people, many of whom were nurses and service workers still in their scrubs.

“We are here for safe staffing, to improve our patient care, to have better retention and to protect our patients,” said nurse Ruth Wearing at the vigil.

Colleagues at West Penn Hospital had a similar event Wednesday dubbed the “Stand Up for Patient Care” rally. It was at Friendship Park in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield section, across from the hospital.

Nearly 700 union members at West Penn last week authorized a strike while rejecting AHN’s contract proposals. The nearly 450 union members at Allegheny Valley Hospital, 175 of them nurses, did the same.

Thursday’s vigil was held on the eve of another negotiation session scheduled for today between the hospital and SEIU, which expects to review any new offers from the hospital on Wednesday, according to union officials.

Allegheny General Hospital and its nurses agreed to a three-year deal with AHN in early November.

The contract included an average raise of 23% over the life of the contract.

Other key provisions included:

• A starting rate of at least $40 an hour by the end of the contract for all nurses with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

• A new salary scale for salary and specialty nurses based on years of licensure, and significant raises for nurse practitioners.

• Commitment to hiring 70 per diem pool nurses (nurses trained to work in various departments) to reduce the use of agency and traveling nurses.

• Improvements to some unit-based nurse-to-patient ratios.

Wearing said her department has a nurse-to-patient ratio of about 1-to-5.

She and her colleagues would like to see that reduced to at least 1-to-4.

Wearing could not specify how many more nurses that would mean, but an increase in staffing would mean less burnout of current nurses working minimum three 12-hour shifts and a variety of overtime hours per week, she said.

Other departments’ nurse-to-patient ratios were not immediately available.

Signing a contract similar to the one at Allegheny General Hospital would mean starting salaries for nurses at Allegheny Valley Hospital would have to increase from about $30 per hour to $40 per hour.

Wearing said some of her fellow nurses have considered leaving Harrison for Pittsburgh as a result of its contract.

“There is always a turnover in staff,” she said. “With the contract they made with AGH, some of our staff is willing to go down (Route) 28 to get to AGH to make the money and have the patient ratios that we do not.”

The median pay for registered nurses in the region last year was $41.38 per hour, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

It equates to $86,070 annually and took into account nearly 3.3 million jobs.

Employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 6% from 2023 to 2033, according to the report.

Dan Laurent, AHN vice president of corporate communications, told TribLive via email Thursday before the vigil that the hospital system prefers not to discuss contract negotiations via the media.

“We’ll keep our focus on discussions at the bargaining table and continue to negotiate in good faith to reach agreements that are fair and competitive for our employees,” Laurent wrote.

Other provisions Wearing would like to see in a new contract include more security guards and metal detectors throughout the hospital. There are guards and metal detectors at the emergency entrance.

“We do need safer staffing. We need better staffing. We provide the best patient care that we can,” Wearing said.

Wearing stood at a podium in front of multiple staffers holding purple and gold signs that read “United for Our Patients.”

She said the latest Allegheny Valley proposal “does not go far enough in investing in our staff and protect our patients.”

She did not elaborate on the proposal but noted training opportunities provided by the health network were not an issue.

Cathy Olschefsky has worked at Allegheny Valley for 35 years in various service roles. Her current job is in the dietary department.

She said there are 68 vacant positions at the hospital. That includes nursing, food service, environmental services, patient attendants and other service departments.

“That’s just the bare-bones basics that we need,” Olschefsky said about filling the vacancies. “That is across the board, but it’s mainly nursing. It would still leave us short. We closed our (progressive care unit) and combined it to work with another (observational) unit because there isn’t enough staff to fully function a PCU.”

Service workers include couriers, patient attendants, radiology imaging aides, cardiac monitor technicians, clerical associates, pharmacy technicians and food service employees.

Olschefsky said service workers at Allegheny Valley Hospital without experience make between $15 to $16 per hour. Those with some experience make about $17.50 per hour.

Olschefsky said the starting wage should be $20 per hour, like it is at Allegheny General Hospital.

“It’s the flagship hospital of AHN,” she said. “If we’re to be a system, which they’re always telling us we are, then we need to set the industry standard. We should all be the same. We do the same work that they do there. We do the same work as West Penn does. We do the same work in every AHN facility.”

She talked about how some workers have to rely on other agencies and organizations to help feed their families.

“Health care workers shouldn’t have to worry about how we’re paying our bills and having to rely on public services and assistance just to get by,” Olschefsky said. “Investing in us means investing in patient care. It means investing in our families and communities, this community.”

State Sen. Lindsey Williams and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor also spoke at the vigil and expressed their support for Allegheny Valley nurses and staff.