Nurses at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital will be the first in UPMC to have a minimum hourly pay rate over $40 under a new three-year contract, union officials say.
A tentative agreement between UPMC and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania was reached Thursday, said Marah McDonald, a nurse and member of the bargaining committee. When they voted Saturday, 85% of the 115 nurses at the hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood approved it, she said.
The contract is retroactive to Oct. 1.
The union’s members voted unanimously on Oct. 7 to authorize a strike, but a date for a strike to begin had not been set.
UPMC has about 21,000 nurses throughout its system, with the majority being nonunion.
Nurses at UPMC Western Psychiatric are members of the Jersey Nurses Economic Security Organization. SEIU bargains on behalf of the JNESO members at the hospital.
“I hope this will put pressure on UPMC to raise standards for all of the nurses in their system,” McDonald said. “We will continue to have to put pressure on this employer because they don’t give out freebees.”
A UPMC spokesperson confirmed that the new contract had been agreed upon and ratified over the weekend.
“Patient occupancy at Western Psych has increased by 14% since early August,” the spokesperson said. “Our hospital, our crisis services, and our ambulatory and community services continue to address mental health needs that deserve and have our full attention.”
Nurses plan to celebrate the contract along with mental health advocates, elected officials and nurses from other union hospitals in front of UPMC headquarters at the U.S. Steel Tower beginning at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The union says it will call on executives to raise job standards for all nurses throughout the UPMC system.
“Together, we have proven that when UPMC nurses unite, we can achieve historic improvements for our patients, our families, our community and our profession,” said Chris Hunter, a nurse at Western Psych for eight years. “Even though we’re a smaller hospital and UPMC has deprioritized us for years, we were able to hold executives accountable and create groundbreaking progress.
“Western Psych nurses were able to make these gains even though we are less than 1% of UPMC’s total nurses,” Hunter said. “Imagine what we will accomplish when all nurses at UPMC and throughout Western Pennsylvania unite as a union and rise up together.”
The union calls the pay raises “groundbreaking” and “unprecedented within the UPMC system.”
According to the union, the minimum hourly wage rate for nurses with a bachelor of science in nursing degree will increase over the three-year contract from $31.65 to $40.25, a 31% increase. There is an immediate increase to $33 as of Oct. 1, followed by annual increases on Jan. 1 to $34.75 in 2025, $37.25 in 2026, and finally to $40.25 in 2027.
When combined with other incentives, including those for longevity and participating in a program to advance their skills, there is an opportunity for average raises of 35%, with the highest raises totaling 44% by the end of the contract.
While the contract also prevents UPMC from replacing registered nurses with licensed practical nurses, improving pay was the union’s biggest goal, McDonald said.
“UPMC was so far behind on the compensation front, which is ridiculous,” she said. “They have so much resources as far as money goes.”
The union says wage increases are a major step toward improving staffing at Western Psychiatric so beds that were previously closed can reopen, expanding patient access to treatment.
Western Psychiatric treats children to seniors with mental illness including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, eating disorders, substance abuse disorder and autism. Up to one-third of the hospital’s 200 beds have been closed because of staffing issues, with 123 nurses leaving over the past three years, according to the union.
UPMC has been slow to provide the union with information on what full staffing would look like for the hospital, McDonald said. Even with the new contract and more attractive pay rates, she said, there are no guarantees that UPMC will hire more nurses or reopen beds.
McDonald, a psychiatric nurse for five years, said she suffered a $6 per hour pay cut doing the same job when she moved from Columbus to Pittsburgh a year ago.
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“I was quite frankly offended with the rate I was offered. I took the job because I’m passionate about this area of nursing,” she said. “I’m really happy to see that they have agreed to improve compensation.”