06/06/2026
UNFAIR LABOR STRIKE AT VIRTUA ANNOUNCED
Nurses To Strike Starting On June 16, 2026 At 7 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 4, 2026
HPAE LOCAL 5105 NURSES at VIRTUA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INTEND TO BEGIN ULP STRIKE ON JUNE 16TH AT 7 A.M.
EMERSON NJ — After bargaining for 21 hours with Virtua last night, HPAE Local 5105 nurses have handed in a strike notice to the employer. This follows two months of bargaining, during which Virtua Health refused to agree to the most important issues of staffing, wages, and cancellation of shifts. The nearly 850 nurses intend to begin the Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike at 7 a.m. on June 16, 2026, at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly.
“Although Virtua is a very wealthy employer having made hundreds of millions of dollars in profit alone last year, they seem not to want to invest in what is most important to patients: nurses. Virtua seems to have other plans for the money that do not include wages, safe staffing on all units, and health and safety of nurses,” said Debbie White, RN and HPAE President.
Virtua Health has expanded across Southern New Jersey, which operates five acute care hospitals and a large network of outpatient facilities. In 2025, Virtua Health made $676 million in profit, and the Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly made $164 million in profit. (2025 unaudited financial statement Q4 YTD)
Sheryl Mount, President of Local 5105 said: “We have been very clear about what is needed to settle this contract, including enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios, wages that promote recruitment and retention of staff, safety language and language that limits cancelling of shifts. Virtua seems to not want to invest in nurses.”
“HPAE did a survey of nurses a few years ago and found that nurses are leaving hospitals in large numbers. If we do not address the issues that are causing them to migrate away from our hospitals, we are exacerbating the nursing crisis,” said Debbie White, RN and President of HPAE. “We know nurses will not stand for the status quo anymore, nor should they.”
In a historic vote, 92% of Local 5105 Nurses voted in favor of the strike if we could not reach an agreement.
“No nurse wants to strike. We prefer to be at the bedside caring for patients,” White continued, “but nurses are burned out and stressed, and they’re leaving bedside nursing. Current conditions in the hospital are simply unacceptable. When nurses fight for better work environments, patients get better care. What benefits nurses, benefits patients.”
“The time for excuses is over,” Mount said. “Virtua has plenty of nurses to meet the staffing ratios that we proposed and plenty of money for fair wages. The time is now and Virtua needs to get it done.”
HPAE has bargained enforceable safe staffing ratios in 13 other contracts over the past two years, including Cooper University Health Care and all of Inspira Health’s hospitals. Click here to review a list of current HPAE contracts’ staffing ratios. For more information on the decades of studies that have been conducted to show that Safe Staffing Saves Lives, please click here to learn more.
www.hpae.org • www.facebook.com/hpae.aft • •
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HPAE is the largest union of registered nurses and healthcare professionals in New Jersey representing more than 15,000 nurses, social workers, therapists, technicians, medical researchers, and other healthcare professionals in hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, blood banks, and university research facilities. HPAE is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
See also our previous article for Additional detail
