Hospital workers at Geisinger Lewistown are preparing to rally Tuesday to demand higher wages, after union workers with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania recently authorized a strike at the hospital.
Paige Duncan is a patient transporter who said she often works about 80 hours a week, with a base pay of $15.30 an hour. Recently, she got notice from her water company that her service would be shut off.
“Sometimes you have to pick which bills you're going to pay, whether or not you're going to have enough money for this bill or if you're going to pay the lesser bills," Duncan said.
Duncan said many people have left because of the low wages, and some who are still there have had to pick up another job to pay their bills.
"There's a couple people who I know who are doing DoorDash on the side, or Uber Eats or they waitress on the weekends," Duncan said. "It's basically like as soon as you get off work, you try to go do the other job."
The vote to authorize a strike comes as hospital workers negotiate their union contracts, which expired a few weeks ago. Besides higher wages, workers also want paid parental leave. If workers do decide to strike, they say they’ll give Geisinger 10 days notice.
In a statement, Geisinger said it's “committed to ongoing good-faith bargaining to reach a mutually agreeable labor contract.”
Tuesday's rally will be at 4:30 p.m. across from the hospital.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported Tuesday's rally will be at 1 p.m. The rally will be at 4:30 p.m. across from the hospital inside the United Steel Workers Hall.
