Title
Calling on Tenet Healthcare, Corporation, the owner and operator of the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) Hospital, to acknowledge the vital importance of nurses to patient care by agreeing to a fair and equitable contract with the nursing staff of MCP, Local 112 Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and by responding positively to the nurse's reasonable demands that the hospital increase staffing, eliminate unsafe forced overtime and provide affordable health care and fair wage increases to their dedicated nursing staff.
Body
WHEREAS, The Medical College of Pennsylvania is a major provider of health care to the citizens of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The hospital cannot provide adequate medical coverage without attracting and retaining high quality nursing staff and providing nursing care at medically responsible levels; and
WHEREAS, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 2002 that levels of nurse staffing are critical to patient survival rates, finding that patients have a 31 percent greater chance of dying when nurses are assigned eight patients rather than four patients in medical surgical units; and
WHEREAS, The hiring of additional nurses and the adequate compensation of existing staff would improve patient care and reduce turnover rates released to burnout and job dissatisfaction; and
WHEREAS, There are numerous federal and state laws that prohibit employers from forcing airline pilots, railroad engineers, truck and bus drivers from working 16-hour days yet Tenet Healthcare routinely demands that its nurses work unscheduled shifts of twelve to twenty hours in duration; and
WHEREAS, In light of Tenet Healthcare's receipt of public funds and tax exemptions, it is important that Tenet Healthcare fulfill the public policy embedded in state law to bargain in good faith with its employees and dedicate itself to the mission of...
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