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<p>Flanked by three colleagues, a Wilkes-Barre General Hospital nurse asked Luzerne County Council on Tuesday to support her union&#8217;s efforts to address staffing issues as part of contract negotiations that have festered for more than a year.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re basically fighting for your families. We&#8217;re fighting for you. We&#8217;re fighting for our families,&#8221; operating room nurse Jamie Fleming, of Pittston, told council.</p><p>She cited a ratio of six or seven patients per nurse.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not safe for anyone,&#8221; Fleming said.</p><p>Her union, the more than 400-member Wyoming Valley Nurses Association, has said it will hold a one-day strike Feb. 13 &#8212; as it did in May 2018 &#8212; if a new contract is not reached by then with the hospital&#8217;s owner, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems (CHS). The hospital is part of Commonwealth Health, a CHS affiliate.</p><p>The next and only scheduled negotiation before the strike date is today. Last May, the hospital locked out the nurses for four additional days.</p><p>Councilman Robert Schnee asked if Community Health is meeting face-to-face with the union at the negotiating table, and Fleming said the company has been &#8220;sending a mediator.&#8221;</p><p>His voice rising, Schnee had this response:</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s insulting. I&#8217;m telling you to say that. That&#8217;s insulting. I know what you do. You are way understaffed, and all you&#8217;re doing is asking for help, and they won&#8217;t even come to the table.&#8221;</p><p>Councilwoman Jane Walsh Waitkus said her late mother had worked as a registered nurse at Wilkes-Barre General for 35 years and would be displeased with the current situation. She asked Fleming for verification that the union&#8217;s push is for patient safety and &#8220;not over money.&#8221;</p><p>Fleming said &#8220;safe staffing&#8221; is the focus of her union, which is part of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t even want more money,&#8221; Fleming told council. &#8220;I&#8217;d be lying to you if people said they didn&#8217;t want money, but we&#8217;re looking for staff.&#8221;</p><p>Walsh Waitkus said patient safety impacts everyone needing services.</p><p>&#8220;You deserve all the support you can get,&#8221; Walsh Waitkus said as several council and audience members clapped.</p><p>Through spokeswoman Renita Fennick, the hospital said it continues to provide the community with the highest quality of care and remains committed to the safety of patients, staff and visitors.</p><p>&#8220;Our bargaining team has been negotiating in good faith with PASNAP for more than a year, actively participating in more than 20 bargaining sessions under the auspices of a neutral party, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,&#8221; Fennick said. &#8220;Our strongest intent is to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.&#8221;</p><p>Councilwoman Sheila Saidman asked about the status of a state Department of Health inspection based on documents the union submitted on its concerns of not enough nurses on staff to properly care for patients. The state&#8217;s review found deficiencies the hospital was ordered to address.</p><p>Fleming said the deficiencies have not been corrected. The union proposed offering retention bonuses and a &#8220;float team&#8221; of nurses who are multi-trained in emergency room, operating room and critical care at higher hourly wages to &#8220;fill in the gaps,&#8221; she said.</p><p>According to Fleming, Community Health questioned why it would get nurses to be multi-trained when it &#8220;can&#8217;t get nurses to stay at the regular wage.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;So they&#8217;re pretty much laughing in our faces,&#8221; Fleming said.</p><p>Saidman said there may be an incentive for progress.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;d probably be in good shape because I&#8217;m pretty sure Community Health is looking for a buyer,&#8221; Saidman said.</p><p>&#8220;No one wants to buy them,&#8221; Fleming asserted.</p><p>Fennick provided a different update on the status of the state review Wednesday, saying the health department performed follow-up visits and found the hospital to be compliant in meeting the required standards of care.</p><p>&#8220;Leadership of the hospital &#8212; administration, medical staff and board of trustees &#8212; is engaged to monitor progress and identify opportunities for continued improvement,&#8221; Fennick said.</p><p>Fleming asked council to consider writing a letter of support to show &#8220;our community is stronger than their for-profit organization.&#8221; State Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Nanticoke, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, already have written letters, she said.</p><p>Council Chairman Tim McGinley said he will place the matter on the Feb. 12 council agenda if he receives a request to do so from any council colleagues.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre General Hospital nurses, shown walking the picket line last year, have asked Luzerne County Council to take a position on their labor dispute. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL060118strike3-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre General Hospital nurses, shown walking the picket line last year, have asked Luzerne County Council to take a position on their labor dispute. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County Council asked to weigh in on Wilkes-Barre General Hospital labor dispute