FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2026
CONTACT: Megan Othersen Gorman / [email protected] / (215) 817-5781
Ashley Berry Johnson / [email protected] / (267) 990-5505
NEARLY 1,200 NURSES NOW PREPPING FOR A STRIKE STARTING AT 6 AM ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 1ST AND ENDING AT 6 AM ON MONDAY, JULY 6TH
“By ignoring the concerns of its nurses, Jefferson is risking the lives of patients who come to our hospital. We are not going backward—and we will not allow care for our patient community to go backward, either.”
PHILADELPHIA – On Monday, 46 days beyond the expiration date of their current contract, nurses at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The decisive vote—96% of RNs voted YES—reflected the nurses’ increasing frustration with Jefferson’s proposals that they say will take the hospital and its already vulnerable patient community backward, undermining patient care and worsening staff retention.
TODAY, the nearly 1,200 nurses that comprise Einstein Nurses United submitted a 10-day strike notice, in accordance with Section 8(g) of the National Labor Relations Act.
“All we want is a safe work environment with safe staffing; resources to provide excellent patient care; and wages and benefits that will help retain experienced staff in the hospital,” says longtime Psych Nurse Danielle Wright, RN . “By ignoring the concerns of its nurses, Jefferson is risking the lives of patients who come to our hospital. We are not going backward—and we will not allow care for our patient community to go backward, either.”
Among the 15 largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S., Jefferson Health has taken away all decision-making power from the nursing leadership at the hospital. Executives in Center City are dictating decisions, appearing far more focused on expansion and branding than patient care in North Philadelphia. At Einstein:
- There’s a lack of investment in safe staffing levels
- There’s a lack of investment in resources
- Capital improvements are frozen
- Legacy Einstein pediatric clinics are closed or sold, leaving low-income families in the lurch
Strike issues for the Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital nurses include:
- Jefferson’s absolute unwillingness to improve nurse staffing, a key quality of care indicator. In bargaining, the nurses have proposed changes to the staffing grids to make improvements on most units. Additionally, the union has proposed language to prevent Jefferson from making staffing worse in the future and to protect good staffing standards and best practices. Jefferson has completely rejected the Union’s proposals. Jefferson actually threatened to file an Unfair Labor Practice against the nurses the first time the nurses proposed improved ancillary staffing, since ancillary staff are not members of the union.
- Healthcare benefits, Pension. Jefferson is proposing they have unlimited ability to make deep cuts to benefits that will effectively take its caregivers backward, driving some to seek employment elsewhere. Jefferson has rejected all proposals to protect the nurses PTO, sick time and pension. Jefferson refuses to commit to limiting the amount the nurses at Einstein pay for healthcare: Despite being on the frontline of providing healthcare to the community 24/7, the caregivers themselves are being told by Jefferson they could be facing unlimited increases to their healthcare costs. The only cap promised by Jefferson is a yearly 15% max increase to premiums. Jefferson wants no limits on any other increases.
- Jefferson won’t commit to the community and the nurses that they will not cut services and close departments: In the wake of Jefferson layoffs and pediatric clinic closures, the nurses are asking that the community does not lose any more services to Jefferson’s cuts.
On March 5th, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Jefferson Health will shutter four legacy Einstein pediatric practices, including one located at the hospital, and move three others to for-profit True North Pediatrics—a move that could potentially force thousands of low-income North Philadelphia families to travel farther for pediatric care or go without it altogether.
“Jefferson, my employer with whom I should have a shared mission of caring for our community, has chosen to divest from community-based pediatric practice availability and, instead, invest in an Eagles practice facility,” says longtime Einstein Mother/Baby nurse and Einstein Nurses United member Carla Le’coin, RN. “What’s happening is a systematic and methodical corporate amputation of accessible pediatric services for humble neighborhoods.
“It isn’t right—and it isn’t why I came to work at Einstein.”
“Jefferson says they are operating at a loss, but part of that is because they misappropriate their funds,” says Einstein Nurses United Co-President Jyll Kurczewski, RN—“someone has to make them accountable for their financial choices! Furthermore, we are trying to make Jefferson Einstein a more desirable place to work by enhancing our benefits. There are many healthcare networks in the area where RNs can choose to work, and we want them to want to be at Einstein. We are not going to be intimidated by a health system more concerned with increasing their footprint than taking care of their frontline staff.”
Should a strike occur, the nurses will walk off the job at 6 AM on Friday, July 1st. They will return to work at TK AM on TK, July TK.
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Einstein Nurses United is an affiliate of PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents more than 11,000 frontline healthcare workers across the commonwealth. PASNAP was founded 25 years ago on the belief that patients do better when frontline caregivers have a voice to advocate for their patients and themselves.
