Hospital System Too Focused on Its Wealth, High Corporate Salaries Nurses, Health Professionals Informational Pickets Planned for Wednesday

August 14, 2018

Hackensack Meridian Health Professionals: Hospital System Too Focused on Its Wealth, High Corporate Salaries Nurses, Health Professionals Informational Pickets Planned for Wednesday.

After several months of bargaining between Hackensack Meridian Health and its nurses and health professionals—which has not yielded a settlement—it has become clear to the healthcare workers that the hospital system is more interested in maintaining its profit margin and multimillion-dollar corporate salaries than improving patient health and safety.

Healthcare workers will be conducting informational pickets at HMH’s three facilities on Wednesday: Palisades Medical Center/The Harborage, Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Southern Ocean Medical Center.

According to 2016 financial documents, Co-CEO, Robert Garrett earned $4.5 Million dollars that year, a salary that is 135 times the salary of the average worker at Palisades Medical Center. When the two health systems merged in 2016, Garrett and John Lloyd were appointed Co-CEOs to run what became New Jersey’s largest and most profitable non-profit healthcare corporation. In 2016, John Lloyd earned $3.9 million.

HMH nurses and health professionals, represented by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees—HPAE—want to know why hospital management is refusing to agree to reasonable wage increases for the workers who make a difference every day for HMH patients.

Aug.15 informational pickets:

Palisades Medical Center/The Harborage
7600 River Road, North Bergen, NJ
6-9 a.m. and 1-6 p.m.

Jersey Shore University Medical Center
1945 New Jersey 33, Neptune, NJ
6-10 a.m. and 5:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Southern Ocean Medical Center
1140 NJ-72, Manahawkin, NJ
4 – 8:30 p.m.

HPAE is the largest union of registered nurses and health care professionals in New Jersey. Since its founding by Englewood Hospital nurses in 1974, HPAE has expanded across the state and into Southeastern Pennsylvania representing 13,000 nurses, social workers, therapists, technicians, medical researchers, and other health care professionals in hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, blood banks, and university research facilities. HPAE is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.