Nearly 300 allied health professionals across two Temple Health satellite campuses – Jeanes Hospital and the Office of Clinical Research within Fox Chase Cancer Center – picketed to urge Temple to invest in staff retention and fair wages to keep caregivers at their facilities and serving their patient communities. All the allied professionals are in contract negotiations now.
“For years, our department has lost so many talented research professionals to competitors who offer better wages and working conditions,” said Diane Creitz, Senior Clinical Research Educator at Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Office of Clinical Research. “Temple management has done nothing to stop it. I see it up close and firsthand as the educator who onboards our staff. In the last year alone, I’ve onboarded more than 40 people to our staff of approximately 80. That’s a 50% turnover rate.”
“We train a lot of great people, and they usually leave us because other places offer them better things,” said OCR Data Specialist Erin Holland. “We want to improve patient care and we want our well-trained staff to stick around. It’s why we voted to unionize and it’s what we are bargaining for now.”
“We came out here today in the freezing cold because we are fighting for fairness,” said X-Ray Technologist Jackie Brettle, a 25-year veteran of Jeanes Hospital. “We’re not asking for more than what our counterparts in other Temple Health System facilities receive – we just want parity and the respect it confers. Bottom line, what we want is safe staffing for our patients and fair compensation so we can keep our skilled techs and professionals at the bedside, caring for our patients. Is that really too much to ask?”
“Many of my colleagues have been working at Jeanes Hospital for over 20 years,” said Jeanes X-Ray Technologist Emily Raynor. “For Temple to propose in bargaining to cut our retirement shows how much they value the employees who have dedicated their lives to this institution, including working through COVID and risking our lives in the process.”
Members from both locals are fighting in bargaining to protect their retirement, to ensure that their years of experience (which determine their wages) are honored fully and accurately, and to urge Temple management to close the gap in Temple Health system wages and compensation by bringing them up to the standard in the rest of the system.
“You are not second tier,” said state Rep. Sean Dougherty. “And this hospital system is damn sure going to hear that you’re not second tier. They’re more people with degrees out here than the actual temperature itself.” ••
