Mount Nittany Medical Center employees plan to begin a five-day strike on July 27, following a vote on Wednesday.
About 98% of the hospital’s 950 unionized employees voted in favor of the work stoppage plan after months of negotiations failed to produce a new contract agreement, according to a release from SEIU Healthcare PA. The union previously voted on July 2 with 99% to authorize a strike notice if no agreement could be reached this week.
Health care unions are required by federal law to provide at least 10 days notice of a strike. It would be the College Township hospital’s first strike since July 2004.
A Mount Nittany Health spokesperson said on Tuesday that if a strike occurs, the hospital has “comprehensive plans in place to ensure patients continue to receive safe, high-quality care with as little disruption as possible.”
“The hospital, our emergency department, physician practices and outpatient clinics will continue to operate as normal, and patients should keep their scheduled appointments unless they are contacted directly by Mount Nittany Health,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus remains on caring for our community while remaining committed to reaching an agreement.”
The union and medical center management began negotiations on April 29 and the previous three-year agreement expired on June 30.
The hospital’s most recent offer included across-the-board 3% wage increases in the first year of a new contract, followed by 2% increases each of the next two years. Union members rejected the offer as “measly,” saying it did not keep up with the 12-month inflation rate of 4.2% in May. They’ve also said Mount Nittany is in a healthy financial position to offer more, netting a reported $183 million in 2025 and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new facilities and acquisitions.
“All of us, from patient-facing care to maintenance, lab, and nutrition, take pride in the care we provide patients,” Jess Mulroy, a registered nurse and a vice president of the SEIU Healthcare PA union chapter at Mount Nittany, said in a statement on Wednesday night. “But I’m getting more and more worried that the standards this hospital used to be known for will fall backward without a serious, fair investment in the workforce.
“While Mount Nittany focuses on new buildings, towers and expansions, many essential workers are struggling to keep up with rising costs and bills. We are calling on this hospital not to forget their roots – the workforce who won them five stars. We are taking a stand for our priorities, which are our patients, our community, and quality jobs.”
The Mount Nittany spokesperson said management’s proposals have offered “significant investments in our employees.”
“Our goal is to reach a fair and sustainable agreement that recognizes the contributions of our employees while ensuring we can continue serving our community as an independent health system,” the spokesperson said. “We know these negotiations affect more than just the language in a contract – they affect our employees, their families and the important work they do every day. We understand this is an important decision for them and respect our employees’ right to participate in this process.”
Both union members and hospital administration said they want to continue bargaining in good faith.
Jon Light, president of Teamsters Local 8, which represents more than 2,000 technical service workers at Penn State, wrote a letter to his union’s members on Monday asking them not to use Mount Nittany Medical Center if workers there go on strike.
“It is sad to see in this corporate world we live in today that the CEO wants to take profit out of those who make money for them,” Light wrote. “Workers just want a fair share and want t be paid for their work. These frontline workers are there every day saving lives and working hard to provide a safe, reliable healthcare facility for this community. We come to expect great service at the hospital, not because of the CEO, because of the workers in the trenches who perform their duties at a high level that we are accustomed to.”
The Mount Nittany union represents most employees from each department at the hospital, such as registered nurses, emergency department technicians, lab technicians, skilled maintenance, pharmacists, certified nurse aides, environmental services aides, radiology technologists, dietary aides and more.
