KYW is reporting that unionized nurses and allied professionals at Temple Hospital in North Philadelphia are threatening to go on strike at the end of the month.

The approximately 1,500 staffers are ready to walk over two main issues: the price of health care, and what the union calls a “gag rule” the hospital wants to impose on staff and union leaders. The group has been without a contract for almost six months.

Emergency room nurse Rebecca Eakin heads up the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals:

“Nobody who is a registered nurse or is a professional technical ever really wants to go on strike. But we feel that it is important for us to be here, to stand up for our professional lives and to stand up for our patients.”

Hospital spokeswoman Rebecca Harmon says that hospital management is looking for what’s termed a “nondisparagement clause” that would apply only to the union.

As for any strike, she vows the hospital will ”remain open and will continue to deliver uninterrupted quality care to all of our patients.”

Source: KYW News