Unionized Nurses reach a Settlement that sets enforceable Safe Staffing Ratios at University Hospital
Ratification vote on the 3-year contract set for October 11, 2024
HPAE Local 5089, representing nurses at University Hospital in Newark, have reached a tentative agreement with the employer. Just as in all other HPAE bargaining agreements from earlier this year, this tentative agreement includes enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios as well as a new wage scale and benefit standards, which will help recruit and retain nurses.
Details of the contract will be made public after members ratify the agreement in a vote that has been scheduled for Friday, October 11th.
HPAE Local 5094, which represents the hospital’s professional employees at the hospital, said the bargaining committee will return to the table next week. Local 5094’s contract also expired on September 30. HPAE Local 5094 professional members include social workers, laboratory workers, IT workers, and clinical staff. They are still fighting for better wages, new benefits and improved contract language for existing benefits.
HPAE President Debbie White, RN, praised Local 5089 members for their professionalism and their perseverance in face of an ongoing nursing crisis in the state. She said nationwide healthcare workers are engaged in a Code-Red campaign to win staffing ratios in labor contracts as well as pass the “Patient Protection and Safe Staffing Act (S2700/A3683) into a law mandating safe patient-to-staff ratios in New Jersey hospitals.
Nurse to patient ratios have been shown to improve patient satisfaction scores and outcomes, decrease patient deaths and decrease stress and burnout of staff. The overall quality of care will always be improved with safe staffing levels.
HPAE locals 5004 at Englewood Hospital, 5030 at HMH Palisades Medical Center, and 5118 at Cooper University Health Care won historic contracts with patient-to-staff ratios earlier this year.
University Hospital is owned by the state of New Jersey and the state’s only public hospital.
HPAE Local 5089 President Banita Herndon said she is hopeful the new contract will help ease staffing shortages.
“This agreement will give us the ability to provide safer care for our patients, help to recruit and retain staff and further elevate University Hospital as the premier medical facility that it is,” Herndon said.
Herndon said our members will continue to advocate for safe staffing ratios in every hospital in New Jersey.
When the “Patient Protection and Safe Staffing Act (S2700/A3683), sponsored by Senator Vitale and Assemblywoman Quijano, becomes a law, it will establish staffing ratios for nursing and non-licensed assistive personnel, with ratios set based on the needs of specific medical units.
RESOURCES:
- Overworked. Unsafe for everyone: The urgent need for Safe Staffing legislation in New Jersey
- Results of Survey of Current & Recent Bedside Nurses in NJ Hospitals
- Decades of Safe Staffing and Current Research
- HPAE POSITION PAPER, MARCH 2023 | Understaffed. Overworked. Unsafe for everyone: The urgent need for Safe Staffing legislation in New Jersey
- HPAE POSITION PAPER II, APRIL 2024 | Understaffed. Overworked. Unsafe for everyone: The urgent need for Safe Staffing legislation in New Jersey
For more information, contact: Michael Allen, (646) 436-7556.
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