FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2025
CONTACT: Megan Othersen Gorman / mgorman@pasnap.com / (215) 817-5781
TEMPLE BLINKS: TEMPLE PULLS BACK ITS PROPOSAL TO DRAMATICALLY INCREASE HEALTHCARE COSTS – 2,600 TEMPLE HEALTH NURSES, TECHS, AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS DELAY STRIKE DEADLINE FOR ONE WEEK TO ALLOW FOR CONTINUED NEGOTIATIONS
With a Workforce United Behind a Powerful Strike Threat and Ready to Fight For Much-Needed Protections For Themselves and Their Patients, Temple Health Takes MAJOR Benefit Cuts Off Table in Return For an Additional Week to Work Out a Deal
CAREGIVERS GIVE MANAGEMENT A NARROW TIMELINE TO ACT: STRIKE DATE SET FOR OCTOBER 13TH
PHILADELPHIA – On Wednesday, nurses, techs, and professionals across two PASNAP-represented locals submitted 10-day strike notices in accordance with Section 8(g) of the National Labor Relations Act. A 5-day strike was planned for caregivers at Temple University Hospital and Temple Women and Families Hospital, starting October 6th.
Today, four days ahead of their contract expirations on September 30th, the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association (1,600 members) and the Temple University Hospital Allied Health Professionals (1,000 members) temporarily delayed the start date of their joint strike after Temple leadership took a MAJOR healthcare cost increases off the table, giving the parties more time to negotiate a full agreement.
The caregivers will give Temple leadership a narrow timeline to act: They immediately refiled strike notices with a strike start date of October 13th.
Until today, Temple had been proposing deep cuts to benefits that will effectively take its caregivers backward, proposing dramatically increased costs for caregivers who seek care outside of the Temple system. Frontline caregivers who do not live close to a Temple facility or already have longstanding relationships with doctors outside of the Temple System will see their costs double for services outside of the system.
Tonight, after months of stalled, unproductive negotiations that fueled the anger and frustration of caregivers seeking only resources to keep caregivers in North Philadelphia and common-sense protections against workplace violence, Temple agreed to take healthcare cuts off the table in exchange for more time to negotiate.
Temple was facing a $4.5 million bill on Monday, September 29, to bring in agency nurses as replacements if the October 6th strike were to go forward. The extended timeline allows them to put off that payment and continue to work on several critical issues that are still on the table.
These issues include:
- Escalating workplace violence, unchecked and often unacknowledged by Temple management: Temple leadership agreed to hire security officers who are specially trained for healthcare facilities and to hire an additional security guard as an added sweetener to coax caregivers to delay their strike. But there are additional, common-sense measures caregivers have been proposing for months, if not years.
In an internal survey on workplace violence conducted in August 2025 of Temple University Hospital Main Campus RNs, 67% said they had personally experienced workplace violence at Temple Main and 94% said they believe that management has NOT established sufficient and appropriate security measures at Temple Main.
Among the joint proposals TUHNA and TAP have put forward to improve safety:
- Security or Temple police officer(s) will respond to all private vehicles transporting patients to the ED and determine that the scene is safe before caregivers approach to remove the patient. Penn Presbyterian Hospital implemented this procedure after a very serious incident occurred there in October 2024: Three nurses were struck and injured by a car fleeing the scene as the caregivers rushed to help a gunshot victim being dropped off by that car. We are demanding Temple be proactive and take this measure before anyone is critically injured. TEMPLE REJECTED THIS PROPOSAL.
- Create a new job classification of behavioral health specialists, trained in verbal and physical de-escalation techniques. Modeled on our clinical Rapid Response Team, this small team of professionals would be able to provide a real-time response anywhere in the hospital, intervening early into behavioral health incidents and preventing them from escalating. Our experience in the hospital has led us to conclude that a team like this is necessary to bridge the gap in the services that Temple security and Temple police provide. Temple’s Episcopal campus has a job description and workflow that could be used as the basis for these new positions. TEMPLE REJECTED THIS PROPOSAL
- Strengthen our incident debriefs. Our current contract language establishing debriefs following all serious incidents has proven invaluable in identifying points in the events where a different intervention could have prevented further escalation. This has been so effective, we are now proposing these debriefs happen in every unit and department in the hospital within 48 hours with Union representation to increase the level of transparency and accountability for the implementation of the recommendations that result and to report back on progress being made. TEMPLE REJECTED THIS PROPOSAL.
- Staff access to emergency lock-down for ER doors in the case of emergency. TEMPLE REJECTED THIS PROPOSAL
“Temple needs to do better,” says Angelina Dadalski, RN, a Temple University Hospital ICU Nurse for 7 years. “An incident of workplace violence happens every single day. It’s the norm here. And management’s go-to response is no response. They want us to think that workplace violence is just a part of our jobs. What they’re refusing to hear is that it’s their job to care about our safety and the safety of our patients, and to invest in it.”
- Safe staffing: The Temple Women & Families Hospital has opened, and management is relying on the dedication of the caregivers onsite to make things work for themselves and for their patients. Temple must add the necessary staff to ensure Women & Families provides the highest level of care and keeps its vulnerable babies and mothers safe.
- Wages to ensure retention of caregivers at Temple Main in North Philadelphia.
“All we want is a safe work environment with safe staffing; real security measures and people that can keep us and our patients safe; and wages and benefits that will help retain experienced staff in the hospital,” says Carlos Aviles, CPhT, a longtime Temple University Hospital Pharmacy Tech and president of the Temple University Hospital Allied Health Professionals. “We are not going backward – and we will not allow care for our patient community to go backward, either.”
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Temple University Hospital Nurses Association (TUHNA) and Temple University Hospital Allied Health Professionals (TAP) are affiliates 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.
