Strike averted, labor dispute lingers

Staff report

EAST LIVERPOOL

Although nurses have called off a strike they had threatened for midnight today against East Liverpool City Hospital, the labor dispute lingers, with both sides having lodged unfair labor practice charges against each other.

Calling the hospital’s actions during negotiations “illegal,” Mary Kay Hoppel, president of the 133-member East Liverpool Nurses Association, said the nurses had canceled their scheduled Friday contract vote because of what she called the hospital’s “illegal proposal.”

“Nurses intend to report to work to care for our patients as usual while we wait to get a legal bargaining process restarted,” Hoppel said.

Having halted patient admissions Wednesday in anticipation of a walkout, the hospital said Friday that its emergency, surgery, imaging, wound care, laboratory, cardiac rehabilitation, therapy and senior behavioral services are functional and that limited inpatient services are available.

The hospital said the union declined a management offer to present the hospital’s contract proposal during joint informational meetings with presentations to the union members by both management and labor.

The hospital said its offer includes annual pay increases with a top rate of nearly $34 per hour, up to four weeks’ paid vacation and seven paid holidays a year, double time and a half for holiday work, full tuition reimbursement and hospital-funded short- and long-term disability.