Mount Nittany union questions hospital finances
CENTRE COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) —Weeks after union workers at Mount Nittany Medical Center went on strike, the employees are now disputing the hospital’s claims that it could not afford to offer raises of more than 2% to the striking workers.
Mount Nittany claims that it is operating with a budget deficit, but the union claims that the hospital has a profit margin over five times that of other nearby health systems.
Union employees say the proposed contract raises were lowered after the recent 5-day strike, prompting their own investigation into Mount Nittany’s quarterly financial disclosure, which they say revealed that the health system has $96 million in total profits.
Mount Nittany’s profit margin reportedly sits at fourteen percent, while Penn Highlands Healthcare and UPMC sit at 2.5 and 2.6%, respectively, according to the union’s findings.
Union workers say that during negotiations, Mount Nittany told them that a major reason they could not afford to increase raises was due to their operating budget deficit.
The workers say they requested and are still waiting on full financial information from the hospital that explains why the budget increased so much from last year.
Mount Nittany confirmed during the last round of negotiations that they spent $6.4 million to bring in temporary workers during the strike, which the union says would have been equivalent to an eight percent raise for all Mount Nittany workers this year.
But the hospital has refuted that claim.
“We are not asking for anything outrageous. If they don’t provide us with that increase, which they are capable of doing, according to their lovely 96 million dollar profits; if they don’t provide that for us, this affects the entire community, it affects Centre County,” says RN Melissa Krouse.
And ultimately, people will end up having to find a new job. People are already talking that they may want to leave if this doesn’t come to a proper agreement in the end with the employer, and that will be sad because in the end, that’ll just hurt the patients because we won’t have enough staff.
6 News reached out to Mount Nittany Medical about the union’s claims about the hospital’s finances.
A spokesperson says the union is confusing Mount Nittany Health’s operating performance with its total financial results.
Mount Nittany says that a positive total margin does not mean that they have that amount of money available on-hand for recurring expenses.
We are also told that the hospital and the union will return to the table for another round of negotiations on Thursday.
