Nurses still negotiating with major N.J. hospital after contract expires

Nurses at University Hospital in Newark are still negotiating the terms of a new contract after their previous one expired Monday.

Health Professionals and Allied Employees, the union representing over 1,400 nurses at University Hospital, said they have not taken a vote to strike. Instead, the group plans to continue to bargain with the hospital and will have an update on Thursday, officials said.

Union members have been negotiating a new contract for weeks at University Hospital, the large state-owned hospital. The nurses are advocating for fair pay and better nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

Hospital officials are working to reach an agreement with the nurses and have met with the union’s representatives several times since July to try to reach a deal for a new contract, a spokesperson said Monday.

“Significant progress has been made and we remain steadfast in our commitment to resolving the contract in a timely manner,” a spokesperson for University Hospital said. “Both parties have made every effort to reach a mutually beneficial agreement as soon as possible and are prepared to resume conversations this week.”

Debbie White, president of Health Professionals and Allied Employees, said the healthcare workers were prepared to do whatever it takes to have their demands met.

“No member ever wants to go on strike, but we will do whatever it takes to bargain a contract that provides the best language to recruit and retain staff,” White said in a statement.

University Hospital serves as one of the state’s few Level 1 trauma centers.

Safe staffing ratios is a key focus of the union’s demands, with members arguing their contract needs to include language ensuring fewer patients per nurse. Nurses become overburdened and burned out when overloaded with patients, negatively impacting the quality of care they can provide, the union said.

“Two decades of studies have shown safe staffing to improve patient outcomes and reduce worker stress and burnout,” White said.

Ratio guidelines are already included in union contracts at other trauma centers, including Cooper University Health Care in South Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, according to Health Professionals and Allied Employees.

However, at University Hospital, officials argue that their medical center already “exceeds” regulations regarding nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

“UH was one of the first hospitals in the State to include staffing guidelines within its own contract,” University Hospital officials said in a statement on Monday. “We have also made tremendous strides in reducing our nurse vacancy rate, succeeding in hiring over 170 staff nurses in the past year to reduce our vacancy rate to single digits.”

Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick had to push to get safe staffing language included in their contracts last year. It was only after a bitter 120-day strike that the union representing the nurses reached an agreement with the hospital and ratified a new contract.

The issue of nurse-to-patient ratios reached the Statehouse in Trenton earlier this year, with hundreds of nurses and their union leaders urging lawmakers to pass legislation mandating staffing ratios in hospitals and other healthcare facilities across New Jersey.