Nurses Union In Montgomery County Agrees To New Contract With Tower Health

POTTSTOWN, PA — Nurses in Montgomery County have reached an agreement on a new contract after more than nine months of bargaining with Tower Health, the regional healthcare system that owns Pottstown Hospital and other local institutions.

The final vote was made on Aug. 6 by nearly 300 RNs at Pottstown Hospital. The union said that voters had to decide to either authorize a strike or ratify the contract.

“We worked hard for a fair contract that respects the work we do, and allows us to care safely for our patients,” Pottstown Nurses United President Lori Domin, a registered nurse, told Patch. “We believe we accomplished that goal. We stuck together for what we believe in, and I think that made the difference. We see this as a win for us, for our patients, and for our hospital.”

The vote was 96 percent in favor of the new three-year contract, which prioritizes recruitment and retention of nurses. Keeping nurses long-term is vital to improving care, the union said.

“When hospitals struggle to recruit and retain healthcare workers, it’s patients who feel the consequences,” PASNAP President Maureen May, a longtime NICU nurse at Temple University Hospital, added in a statement.

The result comes after months of tense negotiations in which both sides claimed the other was not bargaining in good faith. Pottstown nurses said they were significantly underpaid compared to other institutions and that they were understaffed. In June,. Tower originally said they offered a 2.25 percent raise, while the union at the time said the offer was a 1 percent raise.

"We are pleased to have ratified a new contract with PASNAP at Pottstown Hospital," a spokesperson for Tower Health told Patch Monday. "We deeply appreciate the dedication of our nurses and all caregivers to delivering high-quality care, and we look forward to working collaboratively under this new agreement to advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve."

Details of the new contract, including the specific amount of raises and changes in staffing, were not immediately available.

According to the union, Tower also spent at least $400,000 on union-busting consultants at both Pottstown Hospital and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children over a four-month period in 2023 and 2024. These consultants were paid somewhere between $2,500 and $3,500 per day, the union said.

A spokesperson for Tower Health told Patch there were "inaccuracies" in information shared by the union publicly, but did not specify what they took issue with.