revised proposal<\/a>, which a hospital spokesperson said was aimed at avoiding a strike, that included a one-year contract extension with 3% across-the-board wage increase for all of its unionized workers, as well as a $1,000 ratification bonus for every employee in the bargaining unit, wage scale upgrades for 18 job classifications and new investments in workplace safety.<\/p>\nAlicia Sowash, a nutrition and culinary services worker at the medical center, said in a statement on Tuesday night that union members were \u201cextremely disappointed\u201d with the new proposal and that it \u201cmoves us backward, not forward.\u201d Workers were also critical of Mount Nittany leadership, including president and CEO Kathleen Rhine, for not being present to provide the authority needed to make a new offer.<\/p>\n
Union members have said that Mount Nittany has a healthy balance sheet and has been able to put hundreds of millions of dollars into new facilities, points echoed by Takac on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time of significant profits and major investments in physical infrastructure and facilities, Mount Nittany Medical Center must also make an investment in the people who make those profits and that success happen,\u201d Takac said. \u201cAll of its workers deserve a fair share of the rewards in return for their dedication, labor and service. The standard of living and personal safety of frontline healthcare and support employees should never be sacrificed to safeguard corporate and executive profits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mount Nittany officials have said their proposals have represented \u201ca meaningful investment in our employees while ensuring Mount Nittany Health remains a strong, independent health system for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hospital Plans for Strike, Updates Patients<\/p>\n
Mount Nittany has \u201ccomprehensive plans in place to ensure patients continue to receive safe, high-quality care with as little disruption as possible,\u201d according to the hospital.<\/p>\n
The medical center, emergency department, physician offices and outpatient practices will remain open and patients should keep scheduled appointments unless contacted otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some lab and imaging locations, however, will see temporary closures or changes in hours for the week of July 27-31.<\/p>\n
Mount Nittany Health Lab \u2013 Penns Valley, Mount Nittany Health Lab \u2013 Bellefonte, the Mount Nittany Medical Center Outpatient Lab and Mount Nittany Health Imaging \u2013 Penns Valley will be closed for the week.<\/p>\n
Other locations will operate with the following hours:<\/p>\n
Mount Nittany Health Lab \u2013 Philipsburg<\/p>\n
Monday: 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Tuesday to Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Mount Nittany Health Lab \u2013 Blue Course Drive<\/p>\n
Monday: 12:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Tuesday to Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Mount Nittany Health Lab \u2013 Hospital Drive<\/p>\n
Monday to Friday: 7:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.<\/p>\n
Picketing is expected to occur each day off of Mount Nittany Health property.<\/p>\n
Unionized employees were notified that their pay, benefits and badge access would be suspended for the duration of the strike. Bargaining unit employees are eligible to continue health coverage through COBRA.<\/p>\n
It will be the first work stoppage at Mount Nittany Medical Center since July 2004, when workers went on strike largely over mandatory overtime issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Approximately 950 Mount Nittany Medical Center employees are poised to begin a five-day strike on Monday, but a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-784650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}