{"id":798661,"date":"2026-08-02T04:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798661\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T04:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:40:10","slug":"mount-nittany-medical-center-staff-head-back-to-work-after-5-day-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798661\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Nittany Medical Center Staff Head Back to Work After 5-Day Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 1,000 Mount Nittany Medical Center employees began returning to work on Saturday morning following the conclusion of a five-day strike.<\/p>\n

Workers represented by SEIU Healthcare PA took to the picket lines on Monday morning<\/a> after months of negotiations failed to produce a new contract and the previous three-year agreement expired on June 30<\/a>. The union says it is seeking wage increases that keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living in Centre County, as well as new security workplace security measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope Mount Nittany sees that we, the community, and local leaders are seriously committed to ensuring the highest standards of quality patient care at the hospital,\u201d Susan Knee, a radiation therapist in the radiation oncology department at the hospital, said in a statement on Friday night. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to have to strike. Our primary goal since April has been a contract agreement that recruits and retains a strong workforce as well as addresses serious workplace safety and violence concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they head back to work without a new contract, union members and hospital administrators will return to the bargaining table to resume negotiations on Monday.<\/p>\n

Knee said the union \u201casked for all possible availability to bargain next week,\u201d but was only offered one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said we\u2019ll see how that one day goes first,\u201d Knee said. \u201cWe want to set this hospital up for long-term success. Mount Nittany has not yet shown us that their goal is the same as ours, which is keeping the heart of this hospital beating for patients first.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Mount Nittany spokesperson has said that hospital administrators are \u201ccommitted to bargaining in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal remains to reach a fair agreement that recognizes our employees\u2019 contributions while ensuring Mount Nittany Health remains a strong, independent health system able to continue serving our community,\u201d the spokesperson said earlier in July.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo by Evan Halfen | StateCollege.com<\/p>\n

In their last negotiations before the strike, Mount Nittany offered<\/a> a one-year contract extension with 3% across-the-board wage increase for all of the hospital\u2019s approximately 950 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>\n

Management\u2019s offer prior to that<\/a> was a three-year deal with 3% raises in the first year followed by 2% in the following two years, along with an additional 2% for registered nurses pay grade increases for 19 positions, bumps for weekend and preceptor differentials and a series of new workplace safety measures.<\/p>\n

Picketing within sight of Mount Nittany\u2019s new $350 million patient tower<\/a>, workers said the offers were unacceptable at a time when the medical center has a healthy financial position and is making substantial investments in multiple new facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible for us to give up on the highest standards of care for our patients and our community,\u201d registered nurse Jess Mulroy said at a rally on Tuesday<\/a>, where workers were joined by labor leaders and elected officials from around the county. \u201cIt\u2019s the heart of our community, staff who are committed to upholding the highest standard of care because we care so much about our community\u2026We need our leadership to come back and invest in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employing contingency staffing during the strike, Mount Nittany Medical Center, the emergency department, physician offices and outpatient practices remained open and patients were advised to keep scheduled appointments unless contacted otherwise. Some imaging and lab locations had modified hours or were closed, but now return to normal operation.<\/p>\n

Access to the medical center was restricted to patients, families, approved visitors and employees on duty.<\/p>\n

Bargaining unit employees were not paid and had badge access to the hospital revoked during the strike. A point of contention during the week was the cancelation of health insurance benefits, which were automatically reinstated at the conclusion of the strike.<\/p>\n

A rally on Wednesday<\/a> along the picket line, which was joined by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California, focused on the suspension of benefits. The union says its members already paid premiums for the month and those have not been reimbursed. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys have already paid for that health care,\u201d Khanna said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I thought it was so outrageous that I had to stop here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mount Nittany spokesperson provided copies of two emails sent to affected employees ahead of the strike communicating changes to benefits that would occur during a work stoppage. Bargaining unit employees were informed their active benefits would end effective July 27 at 11:59 p.m. and would automatically resume once the strike concludes on Aug. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding union claims that employees had already paid their health care premiums, the spokesperson said employees pay standard biweekly health care premiums that are not prorated, according to the hospital\u2019s employee benefits guide.<\/p>\n

\"\"Picketers hold signs during the Mount Nittany Medical Center workers\u2019 strike on Thursday, July 20, 2026. Photo by Evan Halfen | StateCollege.com<\/p>\n

The bargaining unit represents employees in every department at the hospital and includes nurses, emergency department technicians, lab technicians, skilled maintenance, phlebotomists, certified nurse aides, environmental services aides, radiology technologists, nutrition workers and more.<\/p>\n

Union members said they are pushing for across-the-board wage increases because each worker is essential to providing quality care.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of investing in all workers who make care possible, Mount Nittany executives are offering raises which do not keep up with inflation and have spent significant time and resources stripping away healthcare from healthcare workers, intimidating probationary employees from engaging in union activity, and paying expensive out-of-state replacement workers,\u201d SEIU Healthcare PA wrote in a statement on Friday. \u201cKathleen Rhine has yet to attend a single negotiations session despite her decision-making position as the president and CEO of Mount Nittany Health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 1,000 Mount Nittany Medical Center employees began returning to work on Saturday morning following the conclusion of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-798661","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\/798661","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=798661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}