“Be fair to those who care” was chanted by dozens of nurses and supporters at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rally at the Wilkes-Barre Public Square on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
There were over a dozen speakers, all airing grievances, sharing experiences and demanding action from the nurses’ employer, Geisinger. The rally was organized in response to stalled negotiations that started Jan. 31.
Chief complaints involved better pay for staff recruitment and retention, affordable health care benefits and practical solutions to safety and care.
Wilkes graduates around 100 nursing students per year from our undergraduate programs. The nursing programs’ website lists potential employers. Geisinger is at the top.
This anticipates that at least some students currently enrolled at Wilkes will end up working in a system currently bereft of adequate workers’ rights.
Debru Cartha, a speaker at Wednesday’s rally and an elected union member of SEIU-UHW (United Healthcare Workers West) from Modesto, Calif., gave current nursing students advice.
“Get an understanding of what a union is [while in school],” Cartha said. “The union is us, and we are the heartbeat of the healthcare system.”
Lauren Harris, a local ER nurse of nine years, also reinforced Carthan’s advice for more education regarding unions in the classroom setting. “The first union contact they have isn’t until hiring,” Harris said.
She would like nursing students to hear a few examples of different unions to have a better understanding of how they work before they are confronted with the decision to join one or not.
Further highlighting issues in their community, she noted that any nurse who graduated in 2024 and was hired by Geisinger would not be eligible for a raise until 2026.
“They [students] don’t receive education about collective bargaining per se as a topic,” explained Emily Havrilla, chair of undergraduate nursing.
She guarantees Wilkes teaches evidence-based practice, advocacy for their patients, health policy and interfacing with the legislative process for healthcare change or broad patient advocacy.
Though, she wants the Wilkes nursing program to help students cultivate their own philosophy of nursing, not have one taught to them.
Patricia Dittman, PhD program coordinator, had worked through union contract negotiations in the early 2000s.
“Nurses felt they needed a representative to be their voice when dealing with administration,” Dittman said.
She continued to explain that while the nurses took the first step to vote in union representation, the staff went almost two years without an agreed upon union contract.
Union reps and management met weekly during that time, yet after dozens of meetings, negotiations were still at an impasse. While the unfortunate reality can be that the cogs of power grind slowly, Dittman maintains “what better way to fix something than to ask the person who does it every day.”
That position comes from her knowledge of Magnet Hospitals, a designation given to health care facilities by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
This status is given to facilities with excellent nurses’ satisfaction and patient care. Most importantly, it equips nurses with a higher level of autonomy over their practice. Magnet Hospitals are both union and non-union.
Speakers and messages at the rally ranged from experienced healthcare professionals, elected union bargaining representatives, elected officials and activists.
The topics discussed at the event covered a wide breadth of issues currently plaguing our Geisinger nurses.
Constant exhaustion and high turnover rates due to inadequate staffing, pay cuts, substandard benefits and safety concerns were brought up by multiple speakers.
The cost of a nurse’s healthcare is on the rise. One speaker mentioned the premiums, co-pays and deductibles of their insurance have reached the point where many staff are unable to afford it.
“A single medication I take for a chronic issue comes with a $1500 monthly co-pay,” lamented a speaker.
They went on to point out that insurance monthly premiums often exceed $500 per month and that it is not uncommon for healthcare workers to be on a payment plan to Geisinger for medical debt.
“It’s like a company store,” said Angela Ferritto, President of Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. She finds the situation of inadequate working conditions baffling as “everyone has been cared for by a nurse at least once.”
Geisinger’s pay and investment preference to travel nurses over residential ones is another huge friction point for the union. On average, a travel nurse makes double what a residential Geisinger nurse will, along with equal or better benefits.
In July, Geisinger announced a $880 million expansion of Danville facilities on top of a $900 million expansion of Geisinger Wyoming Valley that began in 2024.
Nurses and union officials find this outrageous in the face of 300 vacant resident healthcare positions in the Giesinger system, some of which have been open for more than five years.
Ethan Ruskin and Debru Carthan traveled over 2000 miles to join the rally. They are both representatives of SEIU-UHW. Strongly reinforcing that all nurses are in this fight together, their organization donated $500,000 to the Geisinger nurse’s strike fund.
Multiple speakers said it is not just about money and benefits. The system allows for no recognition of their work or value, adding to retention issues.
A local ICU physician preached the need for solidarity between doctors and nurses.
“They are not a cog,” the doctor said, going on to press the need to view nurse provided care equally crucial to care provided by a doctor.
Our politicians are also voicing their concerns. Pa. Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski spoke about the halcyon days of smaller health care systems and warned of the dangers that come with for-profit-healthcare.
Sen. John Fetterman was unable to attend but a message was passed to the crowd illustrating his support.
It is important to note that this is not a strike, but the rally attendees want Geisinger to know that a strike is likely if demands are not met.
The rally ended with a request to take action by contacting Geisinger CEO Terry Gilliand to push for the company to meet worker demands. The CEO’s phone number and email address were distributed to the crowd via flyer.
SEIU had a bargaining meeting with Geisinger on Feb. 6 that yielded no results and has another scheduled for Feb. 11.
Geisinger was acquired by Risant Health in March 2024, a nonprofit health organization owned by Kaiser Permanente.