Nurses at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh are seeking a union election, in what SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania calls the largest nurse organizing effort in Pennsylvania in at least a decade.
The union filed a request for an election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 27. If an election is scheduled, nurses would vote on whether to join SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. The election would cover approximately 1,000 registered nurses and advanced practice professionals — including certified nurse midwives, nurse practitioners and other employees — at the hospital.
In announcing the organizing effort, nurses cited concerns about staffing and a desire for a stronger voice in patient care and their profession.
“I love Magee and have a passion for women’s health,” Jean Stone, RN, said in a union news release shared with Becker’s. “Because we work at the foremost hospital for high-risk women and babies in our region, we experience a lot of beauty and joy but also a lot of loss.
“In order to support our patients through the toughest of times, it’s vital to have nationally-recognized staffing standards. Instead, too often we fall short of those standards, and we’re churning through staff and throwing away many experienced nurses.”
UPMC Magee-Womens is part of Pittsburgh-based UPMC and houses one of the largest level 4 neonatal intensive care units in Pennsylvania.
In response to the union push, a UPMC spokesperson said the hospital uses flexible scheduling for each shift based on patient acuity to make real-time, evidence-based staffing decisions.
UPMC also pointed to the hospital’s resource pool of 31 nurses who help fill staffing gaps, as well as the current nursing turnover rate of 4.8% at UPMC Magee.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on May 29.
