How was PASNAP able to strike and win during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression?

Get Ready and Stay Ready
The union began preparing the membership for the serious probability of an extended strike a year in advance. All that hard work paid off when 94% of the membership stayed united and outside the hospital for the duration of the strike. As it turned out, we were only as strong as our weakest link: had we been prepared to stay out longer, our settlement could have been even better.

Rely on Our Strengths
Two union locals worked together to maintain big, loud picket lines from 6am until 9pm every day. PASNAP organized rallies of over 1,000 members and supporters at the luxury condo of the Temple University President, at the law offices of the chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees and, of course, in front of the hospital. The picket lines and rallies emboldened the membership and demonstrated our unity and strength to the hospital.

A Little Help from Our Friends
PASNAP launched a comprehensive and competent solidarity campaign, reaching out to its natural allies in the labor movement and the community. Local unions sent money, staff, water, pizza, coffee, and members to walk the picket lines. Nurses unions from Massachusetts to California sent messages of solidarity and much needed resources. Temple University students and high school students from the Philadelphia Student Union supported the strikers. Leaflets outlining the primary strike issues were handed to patients at the entrance to the hospital and to passers-by on busy adjoining street corners.

Lessons of the Strike
This well-planned and executed strike ultimately fended off the worst of the hospital’s concessionary demands. What will it take to go forward in this legal and economic climate?

We must continue organizing drives at non-union facilities around the state to increase the union density of nurses and other health professionals.