Gracedale nurses, Northampton County near contract agreement, likely averting a strike

Registered nurses and social workers at Gracedale have reached a tentative agreement on a contract with Northampton County, a deal that would avoid a possible strike at the county-owned nursing home if passed.

Jerry Green, president of United Steelworkers Local 2599, said the negotiation teams reached a potential deal around noon Thursday. The contract still needs to be approved by a union vote expected to be held next Thursday, he said. Green declined to discuss details of the deal or what allowed for the breakthrough in the negotiations.

Northampton County previously offered the 50 or so union positions a contract featuring a compounded 8.5% raise over the next three years as well as lower health care costs, but the union rejected that deal in March. Green said the union wanted to secure a larger raise to make up for a four-year period, 2011-2015, when the Steelworkers worked without a contract.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said the tentative agreement deviated little from the one the Steelworkers rejected last month, but the county agreed to some small concessions.

“I am thrilled that we reached a tentative agreement with the registered nurses and social workers. They do fantastic work. I’d like to see them get into the health care the rest of our employees are enjoying with a little bit of a raise,” McClure said.

The Steelworkers make up a small percentage of the employees at the Upper Nazareth Township facility, but their members are among the most highly trained. The registered nurses in particular serve a critical role, with one assigned to each of the nursing home’s 16 units. The registered nurses assess residents whose health conditions change, such as in a medical emergency, and assist admissions staff when someone applies to the nursing home, said Dawn TuersFeldman, Gracedale’s director of nursing.

A strike would be a political black eye for McClure, who made his name in county politics as a champion of the nursing home. He teamed with the workforce there to fight efforts to sell Gracedale in 2010. The potential sale became a referendum question in 2011, and voters elected to keep the nursing home by a 3-1 margin. While the referendum was nonbinding, the county honored the results and abandoned the sale.