EAST LIVERPOOL Registered nurses reject pact proposal; strike to begin

Mandatory overtime is the main sticking point, a union leader said.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
EAST LIVERPOOL -- Registered nurses at East Liverpool City Hospital were set to strike at 7 this morning after overwhelmingly voting down a hospital contract proposal Saturday.
Ruth Mullins, a registered nurse and union spokeswoman, said the Ohio Nurses Association and its local affiliate, the East Liverpool Nurses Association, represent 177 registered nurses whose three-year contract expired at midnight.
Michelle Prater, an ONA representative, said 99 percent voted for the walkout.
The emergency room at the West Fifth Street hospital will remain open, a hospital spokeswoman said, with patients to be treated and discharged or stabilized and transferred to another hospital.
Nurse managers will staff the emergency room.
The skilled nursing unit for long-term patients also will remain open, she said, along with the radiology and lab departments.
Preparation for strike
Most other hospital departments were closed earlier last week as part of a contingency plan. The facility stopped admitting new patients Thursday and canceled all elective surgeries.
Mullins said mandatory overtime has been the main sticking point in negotiations for a new three-year pact, but the two sides are also "far apart" on health insurance issues and wages. A federal mediator has been involved since last Wednesday, she said.
The ONA wants the hospital to stop requiring nurses to work overtime, Prater said, arguing that the practice is unsafe for patients and nurses.
The same issue led to an 81-day walkout by registered nurses at Forum Health Northside Medical Center in Youngstown two years ago, she noted.
The union is at odds with the hospital over how much nurses should pay toward their health benefits, Prater said.
Hospital officials want to increase that amount.
Nurses are also seeking base increases in wages, which now average between $19 and $24 an hour, but Prater said the salary issue ranks third, behind the mandatory overtime and health-care cost issues.
Prater said the hospital gave ONA its last offer on Thursday, and the union gave the hospital a counteroffer that was rejected.
Nurses voted Saturday on whether to accept the hospital's Thursday offer or strike.