WILKES-BARRE — Registered nurses (RNs) at Geisinger voted on Thursday to authorize their bargaining committee to send a strike notice, if necessary, to their employer, per a release from SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. The negotiations have been ongoing since November 2024.
“We’re committed to bringing the best possible care to our community. We don’t want to strike, but we need management to work with us to provide that level of quality care,” said Lynn Fino, a registered nurse in the Urgent Care at Geisinger South. “We’re united to achieve significant across-the-board pay increases to retain and recruit RNs, the best health care benefits in the region, new safety initiatives to keep our patients, families, and workforce safe, and initiatives and additional compensation to help address staffing challenges in all departments including procedural areas.”
The release references a number of challenges alleged by the 800 RNs at Geisinger, including “a nurse shortage of 300 positions fueled by lack of competitive wages, exorbitant health care costs, and rising violence in the workplace.”
“We’re the front lines of health care. We’re the difference between life and death for thousands of patients every year. We know that our patients deserve the best possible outcomes, and for that to happen, Geisinger needs to invest in us right now,” says Jimmy Romanelli, an RN who works at Geisinger’s Hematology Oncology Department.
In 2023, Geisinger Wyoming Valley was acquired by Kaiser Permanente as part of Risant Health.
In reponse to the SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania release, Geisinger released the following statement:
“Geisinger values the critical contributions of our registered nurses in the delivery of care at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. We appreciate the expertise and compassion with which they care for our community and respect their rights as SEIU members. We are committed to ongoing good-faith bargaining to reach a mutually agreeable labor contract. While a member of Risant Health, Geisinger operates independently, and these negotiations are exclusively between Geisinger and the SEIU.”
Bargaining will resume on Monday. The contract expires on Jan. 31, and multiple bargaining sessions are scheduled for next week.
The post Union RNs at Geisinger Wyoming Valley vote to authorize strike, if necessary appeared first on Times Leader.