Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith

PHILADELPHIA -- Well, it wasn’t an Easter parade coming through Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, but it was a march by striking registered nurses and other Temple University Hospital health professionals that included lots of kids and family members deferring the activities that usually mark the spring holiday weekend.

On the fourth day of the strike by the 1,500 members of the PASNAP (Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals) bargaining unit at Temple, nurses with decades of service at the hospital vowed to continue their strike “as long as it takes” to get a fair contract and to be able to be the most effective patient advocates possible. 

The PASNAP marchers made their way through the historic square adjacent to the luxury condominium home of Ann Weaver Hart, Temple’s CEO, who according to an early 2010 report in the Chronicle of Higher Education earns more than $602,000 annually but who is, according to the nurses, key architect of the plan to bust their union and avoid giving nurses the freedom to advocate for their patients and the fair benefits and compensation they deserve.  The nurses have been working without a contract since last September while Hart’s current contract assures her of not only one of the highest salaries in the nation for university presidents but also grants her a car, a house and $75,000 in deferred compensation.