Nurses and technicians at Temple Health plan to strike on Oct. 6 if they cannot reach a contract agreement with the health system, their union announced on Wednesday.
The strike notification, required by federal law, comes after nurses and techs represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) voted to authorize a strike last Friday.
PASNAP represents 1,600 nurses and 1,000 other medical professionals at Temple; their current contracts are set to expire on Sept. 30.
Nurses and technicians will walk off the job at Temple University Hospital and Temple Women and Families Hospital if a contract is not reached before Monday, Oct. 6. Nurses and techs who work in the bone marrow transplant unit at Temple University Hospital-Jeanes Campus are also set to strike, the union said.
Temple officials are “disappointed but not surprised” by the strike notice and have contingency plans to provide ongoing care if a strike takes place, Temple Health spokesperson Jeremy Walter said in a statement.
“So far, these contingency plans have cost more than $1 million. Next week, we will have to pay another $5 million for contingency staffing. That’s millions of dollars that could have gone to our employees or been used to buy needed equipment, but instead it’s going to outsiders,” the statement read.
“We remain committed to a productive negotiation process and are hopeful that a work stoppage can be avoided — it would only delay reaching a contract.”
Temple’s unionized staff have made safety conditions a hallmark of recent contract negotiations.
“They want us to think that workplace violence is just a part of our jobs,” Angelina Dadalski, an intensive care unit nurse at Temple, said in a news release. She said workplace violence incidents happen at the hospital “every single day.”
“What they’re refusing to hear is that it’s their job to care about our safety and the safety of our patients, and to invest in it.”
Safety an ongoing issue
The union’s last contract in 2022 included several measures that nurses said had helped them feel safer on the job, including debriefings for staff who are involved in or witness violent episodes.
But amid current contract negotiations, union leaders say more can be done. At a rally earlier this month, nurses said they’d been kicked and punched on the job and threatened with sexual assault.
In July, staff called for stronger security measures after a man barricaded himself in Temple University Hospital’s ER. (An active shooter alert was declared but authorities later concluded the man did not have a gun.)
Nurses negotiating the new contract want staff debriefings with union representatives held within 48 hours of a violent incident. Spurred by a hit-and-run at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center’s ER entrance last year, they are also asking for security staff to check for private vehicles arriving at hospitals.
They have also said that Temple is proposing cuts to benefits that will increase costs for staffers seeking their own healthcare outside of Temple’s health system.
And they have criticized Temple’s recent purchase of Redeemer Health’s share of Chestnut Hill Hospital — as well as its spending on the new Women and Families Hospital — saying more should be spent on staff as federal cuts threaten the health system’s bottom line.
Walter said that the health system’s purchase of the Redeemer share, expanding Temple’s ownership of Chestnut Hill Hospital to 80%, brings more patients into Temple’s care and increases revenue, providing financial stability at the 148-bed hospital.
The Women and Families Hospital, he said, offers community-based care for North Philadelphia patients and creates more revenue and union jobs.
» READ MORE: Temple pushes back opening of new women’s hospital
Several Philadelphia healthcare unions in recent years have threatened to strike amid contract negotiations, although they generally reach contract agreements before the strike takes place.
In 2023, nurses at Lower Bucks Hospital and Suburban Community Hospital went on strike for five days but returned to work without a new contract. They eventually ratified contracts in late 2024 and early 2025, respectively.