Nurses at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital are officially on strike.
The 220 nurses at the Kittanning based hospital formally went on strike yesterday starting at 7 a.m.
Nurses say that management hasn’t made an offer that does enough retain its current workforce; so far more than 40 nurses have left the hospital in the past year for other higher paying jobs.
“As nurses, our first priority is always excellent patient care, and to provide it, we cannot be assigned too many patients at once,” Sandra Harrison said in a statement. Harrison has been a nurse at ACMH Hospital for nearly 40 years.
“Before the pandemic, inadequate staffing was already a problem, but during the pandemic, the situation became critical. Nurses’ suggestions and concerns have been ignored by management. Our patients, our community, and the nurses deserve better,” Harrison said.
In a statement, hospital officials say they have had patient-nurse staffing guidelines in the labor agreement for a number of years, and that the union did not propose any changes those guidelines during the negotiations. They also believe the offered wage increase was appropriate.
“As for compensation, ACMH recognized the importance of recruiting and over four months ago presented the most lucrative and aggressive wage proposal in its history. The increase in wages in the first year of the contract range from 7% to 12% depending on years of experience, followed by a 4.5% increase in the second and third years,” hospital management said in a statement.
Nurses say they will remain on strike through Thursday.
