Historic Labor Agreement to Give Patients Access to a Safe Staffing Hospital in Monmouth County

Registered Nurses at Jersey Shore University Medical Center represented by HPAE have struck a deal with Hackensack Meridian Health on a new contract that includes enforceable safe staffing ratios, better pay, and enhanced workplace violence prevention measures.

HPAE Local 5058 President Dan Hayes, RN, recognized the seventeen hundred HPAE nurses at Jersey Shore for their resolve and tenacity as they demanded greater protections, which he said greatly influenced the negotiating during critical days of bargaining.

"This contract is historic, and nurses stood united to gain safe staffing ratios and violence prevention standards so they can safely provide care for our patients," Hayes said. "The safe staffing ratios set in this contract will now give patients the option of choosing a hospital with safe staffing in Monmouth County. Nurses refused to settle for anything less, so patients can have greater assurance that their nurse can provide medical care in a safe manner."

HPAE President Debbie White, RN, said the Local 5058 contract joins the eleven other HPAE contracts settled over the past 21 months that have become a blueprint for a statewide nurse-to-patient ratio law that Trenton needs to pass sooner rather than later.

"Not every hospital in New Jersey is unionized and able to affect their working conditions," White said. "Research shows that without nurse-to-patient ratios, nurses are distracted, overwhelmed, and stressed. Since patients come to hospitals for 24-hour nursing care, they deserve a nurse that can be available to meet their needs. That is what we are achieving in our hospitals and what we feel every patient in New Jersey deserves."

HPAE Local 5058's more than 1,700 Registered Nurses are scheduled to vote on whether to ratify the contract on Friday, September 19, 2025. Details of the agreement will be available upon ratification.

The nurses at JSUMC, members of HPAE Local 5058, are part of Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), New Jersey's largest health care union, representing more than 15,000 nurses, social workers, therapists, technicians, medical researchers, and other health care professionals in hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, blood banks, and university research facilities in New Jersey and Southern Pennsylvania.

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For more information, contact: Michael Allen, (646) 436-7556.

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