Allegheny Valley Hospital union nurses, employees agree to tentative deal with AHN

A union representing nurses and other employees at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison has reached a tentative contract with the Allegheny Health Network.

The union, SEIU Healthcare PA, issued a statement Saturday saying the tentative agreement was reached late Friday night.

Union members will vote on the contract Monday, Sept. 9, according to union spokesman Tano Toussaint.

He said West Penn Hospital’s union nurses will hold further negotiations Monday, with a vote scheduled for Wednesday, “when nurses will either approve a new contract or set a strike date.

Dan Laurent, vice president of corporate communications for Allegheny Health Network, issued a brief statement: “We are happy to have reached a tentative agreement with the bargaining units at Allegheny Valley, and look forward to the contracts being ratified next week.”

Neither side offered any contract details.

The settlement at Allegheny Valley Hospital came a day after union workers held a rally outside the hospital. At Thursday’s rally, union leaders didn’t specify what they were looking for in a new contract but said they were looking for the same deal that AHN’s flagship hospital, Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, reached with its nurses last November when they signed a three-year pact.

That contract included an average raise of 23% over the life of the contract and improvements in working conditions.

Nearly 700 union members at West Penn last week authorized a strike while rejecting AHN’s contract proposals. The nearly 450 union members at Allegheny Valley Hospital, 175 of them nurses, did the same.