FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 30, 2025
CONTACT: Megan Othersen Gorman / [email protected] / (215) 817-5781
Ashley Berry Johnson / [email protected] / (267) 990-5505
“You are the caregivers, the lifesavers, the ones behind every steady hand and every healed patient. You show up when it’s hard, you show up when it’s hectic, you show up when no one else can. And that’s what makes this moment so important. Because you’re showing up again, for each other and for the Butler community.”
“Respect Experience. Retain Talent. We’re Worth It.”
BUTLER, PA – Under dark clouds, amid persistent rain, technical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital warned of a coming patient care storm. The techs, joined by Butler Memorial Hospital nurses and Butler Mayor Bob Dando, spoke out at a press conference in Diamond Park about the alarming loss of experienced techs at the hospital — and what high staff turnover means for patient care and Butler’s patient community.
“Resource cuts have become the norm. Staff are leaving faster than they can be replaced. And the pressure on those of us who remain grows by the day,” says Donnie Geibel, CNMT, RTN, a longtime Butler Memorial Nuclear Medicine Technologist and lifetime resident of Butler. “Butler Memorial must respect and retain its experienced caregivers. When staffing and institutional knowledge is allowed to dwindle, it’s patient care that suffers.”
“We’re losing doctors. We’re losing techs. Pharmacy needs people,” says X-Ray Tech Virginia Swetof, a 22-year veteran of Butler Memorial Hospital. “They’re leaving for better pay, for partner benefits, for more respect. Our Emergency Room wait times are often 8 to 10 hours. It was never that way before. But since COVID and since we merged with Excela, caregivers have left right and left, wait times have skyrocketed, and respect for what we bring to the hospital has never been lower. When there’s no respect for caregivers, there’s no respect for patient care.”
Many Butler Memorial techs have worked at the hospital for decades and have deep roots in the Butler community. After their hospital’s merger with Greensburg, PA-based Excela Health in 2023, the techs and what they bring to the hospital and to their community began to feel undervalued.
On May 22, 2025, 235 Butler Memorial Hospital techs voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which has long represented their colleagues, the nurses at Butler Memorial. The vote was in direct response to the healthcare workers’ deteriorating work conditions under Excela Health.
“Our wages have been stagnant, our benefits have been taken away from us, and many of our colleagues have left,” said Maura Williams, a surgical tech at Butler. “My colleagues and I want to keep our dedicated and skilled staff here and make Butler Memorial a great place to work again. Forming a Union gave us a voice to advocate for much-needed changes. That’s what we’ll be doing publicly, on October 30th – for us, for our patients, and for the hospital.”
“We are extremely critical to the workings of our hospital,” says CT Tech Tara Erskine. “You can’t run an ER or special procedures or outpatient without CT. Our patient community needs us – and we need people who know how to manage care when an ambulance rolls in with a patient who’s having a stroke. We need management to acknowledge what we bring to the hospital, to protect our resources and our staff, and to give us what we need to care for our community. We don’t have that now – that’s why we unionized. We are hoping to change things and make them better.”
The Butler Memorial techs are currently bargaining for their first Union contract. The central issues of their campaign are:
Wages that are tied to recruitment and retention and confer respect for their professions and all that they bring to the hospital and the Butler patient community.
Wages for Butler Memorial technical staff are well below the market and that of nearby hospitals. Most haven’t received a raise in two years, and for some, it’s been even longer. Plus, because there’s no wage scale that considers and values experience, new hires are brought in at a higher rate than the experienced techs training them – and the hospital refuses to negotiate temporary incentive or retention bonuses for experienced staff.
Benefits to increase retention. Independence cut benefits significantly last year, including removal of spouses, and staff weren’t even informed in advance. Many of these frontline caregivers have given their careers to the hospital and to the Butler community, and they are going backward.
“When an employer changes your healthcare benefits, normally they talk to you about it,” says Erskine. “Independence didn’t do that. A hospital stripped our spouses from our healthcare with no notice, as though it was nothing. That was shocking to me.”
Safe staffing for excellence patient care and staff retention. Below-market wages and major cuts to benefits have contributed to high staff turnover. The majority of departments are significantly understaffed – some running at around half the number of staff needed to provide care and perform services. This isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a direct risk to both our patients and our livelihoods.
Disrespect. Wage disparity, serious staffing challenges, and lack of communication on big issues like pay and benefits have created an atmosphere of distrust.
“We don’t feel valued by the health system for what we bring to the hospital and to our community – and staff are leaving in droves as a result, threatening patient care excellence and intensifying the issues that compelled us to Unionize in the first place.
“We just want to be heard,” said Respiratory Therapist Monica Johnson. “We want to make our hospital better.”
Summary of issues, quotes for press use, and photos attached.
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Butler Techs United is an affiliate of PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents more than 11,000 frontline nurses and healthcare professionals across Pennsylvania and was founded on the belief that patients do better when critical care staff have a voice to advocate for their patients and themselves.
