With new deal, Temple nurses set to return

Well, that was easy.

Nurses and medical staffers at Temple University Hospital enthusiastically approved a new contract Tuesday with the hospital's management after a bitter monthlong strike.

Workers are due back on the job tomorrow.

To hear members of the workers' union tell it, they managed to get Temple University officials to budge - and then some - on crucial terms of the contract during marathon negotiations that finally ended on Monday.

According to the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents 1,500 nurses and workers at the hospital, Temple removed a much-maligned "gag clause" that would have prevented workers from publicly discussing problems at the hospital.

Temple also backed off a pledge to end tuition benefits for dependents of employees. The union said hospital management is now going to extend that benefit to nonunion employees, something it had previously stopped doing.

Middle ground was found on health-care contributions and weekend and shift-pay differentials, the union said. Ninety-seven percent of the union members voted in favor of the new deal.

Nurses and other workers hit the picket lines on March 31, six months after their contracts expired. The hospital hired hundreds of temporary workers, and both sides went weeks without negotiating.