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North Bergen NJ, in a major victory for healthcare workers, the union representing 800 nurses at Palisades Medical Center has reached a tentative agreement with hospital owner Hackensack Meridian, union leaders and hospital executives announced on Saturday. This development comes just two weeks after the nurses threatened to walk off the job, underscoring the urgency of their demands.
While the specifics of the agreement have not been disclosed, union leaders hailed it as “historic and groundbreaking.” The deal promises to improve staffing ratios at the North Bergen hospital, a crucial step towards easing the burnout that has driven many nurses out of the profession, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Debbie White, president of the Health Professionals & Allied Employees (HPAE) union, expressed optimism about the contract’s impact. “The safe staffing improvements and wage increases recognize the importance of protecting patients and respecting healthcare workers,” she said. “The negotiated language will go far in recruiting and retaining the hospital’s most valuable asset, the staff.”
Nurses are set to vote on the new contract on Wednesday, a key step in finalizing the agreement.
This deal at Palisades Medical Center follows closely on the heels of new contracts ratified by nurses at Englewood Health and Cooper University Medical Center in Camden. Both agreements included provisions for lower staff-to-patient ratios, reflecting a broader trend in addressing staffing concerns that have plagued hospitals for years and were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Ben Goldstein, a spokesperson for Hackensack Meridian, expressed hope that the nurses and other technical workers at Palisades would approve the new contract. “It continues to support excellent care for patients while providing team members with competitive wages and benefits in a safe work environment,” he said.
The recent push for better staffing ratios has been driven by significant workforce challenges. According to HPAE, nearly a third of nurses left direct patient care at New Jersey hospitals from 2020 to 2023. This alarming trend highlights the critical need for improved working conditions to retain and attract nursing professionals.
The new contract at Englewood Health, for example, reduced the nurse-to-patient ratio from 1-to-6 to 1-to-5. Importantly, any deviations from this standard will now be subject to binding arbitration, ensuring enforceability. Similarly, the contract at Cooper University Medical Center established an average ratio of 1 nurse to 4-5 patients in several departments and mandated a 1-to-2 ratio for any critical care patient, regardless of their location in the hospital.
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