On March 31, after working without a contract for six months and battling a new aggressive, anti-union contract proposal, 1,000 nurses and 500 professional workers took strike action against the administration at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA.  The militancy of these workers to fight back against a brutal administration, one ultimately seeking a mandate to crush the union that represents both nurses and others employed at the hospital – the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) – expressed itself in a resounding to 980-50 vote in favor of strike action the previous day.

The administration, in response to the prolonged (now going on 10 days) strike, has done what all management does when workers say enough is enough and stand and fight for their rights and interests:  they brought in scab labor to weaken tactically the strike, hoping it would fundamentally break the resistance of the nurses and other hospital employees.  The administration sought out Healthsource Global Staffing to do their dirty work by reportedly offering upwards of approximately $10,000 for nurses and $8,500 for allied professionals for a week’s work in their efforts to turn sections of the working class made desperate by the capitalist crisis and chronic unemployment into weapons of their own through a form of wage bribery.  The PASNAP calculated that after two weeks of paying the above wage rates, accommodations, round-trip travel, bonuses, and other amenities to scabs, the costs incurred by Temple would exceed the total costs of settling the union contract in question, proving incontrovertibly the union-busting character of the current university /hospital administration and management.

Contract attempts to break workers, PASNAP

University and hospital officials along with the negotiating representatives from the PASNAP have made little to no headway since the strike began after management tried two days ago to pass off its own proposal as a mediator-proposed settlement.  The recent proposal stipulated, however, that the unconscionable non-disparagement or “gag clause,” which required nurses and professionals receive disciplinary measures if they in any way “criticized” Temple University regardless of the validity or accuracy of said criticisms.  This “morally reprehensible,” as Temple Watch succinctly chose to put it, clause sought to take away from nurses and other hospital professionals the right to speak out against hazardous conditions or practices that could result in harm or even the potential death of patients.  Temple University Hospital officials attempted to provide justification for this untenable policy by claiming that it was not “necessary” to go to the public in order to protect patients, revealing strikingly the ferocious desire on their part to silence any and all who might speak out against any systematic degradation in the quality of care and treatment services.

The “final offer” contract proposal put up by Temple’s negotiating team last September reflects an aggressive move on their part to offload their supposed “budgetary crisis” (Temple, upon closing their Northeastern hospital actually came out $16.5 million in the black during the previous fiscal year) onto the backs of nurses and other workers.  For instance, the contract calls for increases in health-care premiums for nurses and allied professionals that would double and triple their current costs respectively.  It called for a freeze on wages for the first year of the contract’s implementation, the elimination of the tuition-benefit program, and, even more insidiously, the right of management to eliminate health-care plans at any time and to increase premiums as they see fit annually – effectively allowing for management to simply dictate its own health-care policy at the expense of a collective agreement between workers and the administration.

Nurses and workers find support from students, community groups, and unions

The hostility shown by representatives of Temple University Hospital – particularly around the fight against the “gag clause,” the ending of fair share or agency fee payments (effectively a mandate to destroy the closed shop), and the scrapping of the tuition-benefit program, culminated  in an enormous outpouring of community and university student support for the struggles of the nurses and professionals. Temple students, particularly the Temple Student-Labor Action Project (SLAP), took the lead in organizing a campus-wide campaign collecting signatures to present to Temple University president Ann Weaver Hart calling for a discussion between students and the administration over how it is handling the nurses and allied professionals strike.  Upon arrival of the student delegation to deliver their petition to Hart and other officials, Temple campus police was promptly called in to disperse the crowd, ripping up signs made by students sporting slogans in support of the striking hospital workers.  Active union solidarity initiatives in support of the nurses and professionals came from AFSCME local 1723, the Temple Associate of University Professionals, the International Association of Firefighters Local 22, and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka – who declared in a speech on March 19, “we will not allow Temple Hospital, an institution supported by taxpayers’ funds, to thumb their noses at these workers or the union movement.

Decisive steps are necessary to ensure victory

Solidarity in these times is crucial to victory.  In this case, however, it needs to be more than simple words.  Organized labor would do well to aid the efforts of the strike by going on strike themselves, regardless of any legal scruples of the local leadership.  Workers from the unions mentioned above and others should demand that their leaders take action in support of the nurses and workers at Temple Hospital.

Students at Temple University played an important role in raising awareness not only on campus but also around Philadelphia more generally in mobilizing support for the strike.  Their continued efforts play a much-needed and key role to victory.  Link up the struggles of students and workers!  By engaging in solidarity actions on campus, including mass walkouts, demonstrations, pickets, up to, and including building occupations, the administration will find it impossible to go on and will buckle under such tremendous pressure

Inside the PASNAP itself, the rank and file should demand that all negotiators and strike-committee leaders be put under their control.  This means that all those who claim to speak on behalf of the nurses and workers must be elected democratically in mass assemblies and subject to recall at any time should the membership deem it appropriate.  The necessity of such a policy is evidenced by the most recent round of negotiations between the representatives of the union and the administration in which the union has already agreed to a reduction of their wage increase proposal to 3% in the face of a weak counterattack by management.  The rank and file must keep strict watch over their current “leaders,” not flinching for a second in building their own strike organs to achieve their vital needs if and when the leadership should bow before the wishes of management and betray the struggle.  They should demand that no concessions be made on the part of their representatives to the administration.  Their battle cry must be, “we will not pay for your ‘budgetary crisis.’”

• Down with all “gag clauses!”  The nurses and professionals at Temple Hospital must have the right to speak out against any attempts by the administration to cut corners and reduce the quality of care provided to patients.  Nurses and workers must have a veto on any administrative plans that they deem ultimately hazardous to patients and themselves.
• Hire more workers and implement a sliding scale of hours at no loss of pay to those currently employed to combat understaffing and overwork
• For an immediate rise in wages and the introduction of a sliding scale of wages indexed accordingly to vicissitudes in the prices of consumer goods
• No to any rise in health-care premiums!  Extend coverage to all at the expense of the state of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and the wealthy and corporations.  Union and democratically elected workplace committees must have control and authority over deciding health-care provisions, tuition benefits, and other hard-won amenities at the expense of management.
• Fight for nurses, allied professionals, and doctors’ control inside Temple Hospital!  This means only they should be able to decide key matters such as hiring, firing, working hours, staffing levels, patient care, etc, not administrative or state bureaucrats.

With current contract talks at an impasse, it is imperative that rank-and-file members of PASNAP continue with and extend their struggle and militancy.  The bosses will try everything in their power, even so far as using the repressive organs of the state, i.e., the police, National Guard, etc, to break up the strike if it continues to stand in the way of the interests of the administration.  A decisive battle is clearly on the way.  The strike may need to take on greater proportions, escalating up and including the occupation of Temple Hospital.  In such a tremendous show of solidarity and strength, the bosses will come to see that the workers pose to powerful a force to resist.  They will be driven by the force of circumstances to bow to the wishes of the workers.  It could grind their anti-union / anti-worker offensive to a halt.  The victory of the nurses and allied professionals at Temple Hospital will prove assured.