1,500 Nurses At Pittsburgh Hospital Reach Contract Agreement

PITTSBURGH, PA —More than 1,500 Allegheny General Hospital nurses who had threatened to go on strike instead have reached a three-year deal on a new contract.

Nurses on Monday voted to ratify the pact, which runs until October 2029. According to Service Employees International Union Healthcare PA, the state's largest health care union, the contract calls for a commitment to increase staffing levels and provides an additional $35 million in nurse wages for retention and recruitment.

Subscribe

According to the union, over the life of the contract, nurses will be getting average total raises of nearly 16 percent, with a minimum $8 an hour raise for licensed nurses with more than five years of experience.

The pact also includes protection of health benefits, with an option for a 100 percent employer-paid coinsurance; protection of nurses' defined benefit pension and 403(b) plan; maintenance of paid time off benefits; AGH's first-ever agreement on AI in order to protect staffing ratios and nurses' clinical judgement; and a commitment to end forced rotating shifts, which require nurses to switch from days to nights within a single work week.

The agreement comes after nurses voted to hold an informational picket and authorize a strike. AGH – a Level 1 Trauma Center which was the basis for the hit TV show "The Pitt" – has the highest level of patient acuity in Western Pennsylvania. Patient acuity is a measurement of the severity of a patient's illness or medical condition, combined with the intensity of nursing and clinical care they require.