Nurses at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital will be the first at UPMC to have a minimum hourly rate of pay above $40 under a new three-year contract, union officials say.

A tentative agreement between UPMC and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania was reached Thursday, said Marah McDonald, a nurse practitioner and member of the bargaining committee. When they voted Saturday, 85 percent of the 115 nurses at the hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood approved it, she said.

The contract is retroactive to October 1.

Union members voted unanimously on October 7 to authorize a strike, but no date had been set for the strike to begin.

UPMC has approximately 21,000 nurses throughout its system, most of whom are nonunion.

The nurses at UPMC Western Psychiatric are members of the Jersey Nurses Economic Security Organization. SEIU negotiates on behalf of hospital JNESO members.

“I hope this will put pressure on UPMC to raise the standards for all nurses in their system,” McDonald said. “We will continue to pressure this employer because they do not give free whites.”

A UPMC spokesman confirmed the new contract was agreed upon and ratified over the weekend.

“Patient occupancy at Western Psych has increased by 14% since the start of August,” the spokesperson said. “Our hospital, our crisis services, and our outpatient and community services continue to address mental health needs that deserve and benefit from our full attention.”

The nurses plan to celebrate the contract with mental health advocates, elected officials and nurses from other unionized hospitals outside UPMC’s US Steel Tower headquarters starting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The union says it will demand executives raise job standards for all nurses in the UPMC system.

“Together, we’ve proven that when UPMC nurses come together, we can achieve historic improvements for our patients, our families, our community and our profession,” said Chris Hunter, a nurse at Western Psych for eight years. “Even though we’re a smaller hospital and UPMC has deprioritized us for years, we’ve been able to hold executives accountable and create breakthrough progress.

“Western Psych nurses were able to achieve these gains even though we are less than 1 percent of UPMC’s total nurses,” Hunter said. “Imagine what we will accomplish when all the nurses at UPMC and across western Pennsylvania come together as a union and stand up together.”

The union calls the pay raises “groundbreaking” and “unprecedented within the UPMC system.”

According to the union, the minimum wage for registered nurses with a bachelor of science in nursing will increase over the course of the three-year contract from $31.65 to $40.25, a 31 percent increase. There is an immediate increase to $33 starting October 1, followed by annual increases on January 1 to $34.75 in 2025, $37.25 in 2026, and finally to $40.25 in 2027.

When combined with other incentives, including longevity and participation in a program to develop skills, there is an opportunity for average raises of 35%, with the highest increases totaling 44% by the end of the contract.

While the contract also prevents UPMC from replacing registered nurses with licensed nursing assistants, improving wages was the union’s biggest goal, McDonald said.

“UPMC has been so behind on compensation, which is ridiculous,” she said. “They have so many resources in terms of money.”

The union says the pay rises are a major step towards improving staffing at Western Psychiatric so that beds that were previously closed can reopen, expanding patient access to treatment.

Western Psychiatric treats children and seniors with mental illnesses including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, eating disorders, substance abuse disorder and autism. Up to a third of the hospital’s 200 beds have been closed due to staffing problems, with 123 nurses leaving in the past three years, according to the union.

UPMC has been slow to provide the union with information on what full staffing would look like for the hospital, McDonald said. Even with the new contract and more attractive pay rates, she said, there are no guarantees that UPMC will hire more nurses or reopen beds.

McDonald, a psychiatric nurse for five years, said she took a $6 an hour pay cut doing the same job when she moved from Columbus to Pittsburgh a year ago.

“I was honestly offended by the rate that was offered to me. I took the position because I am passionate about this field of nursing,” she said. “I am very happy to see that they have agreed to improve compensation.”