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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Negotiations between Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and nurses are expected to resume today after another marathon session on Monday.</p><p>&#8220;At the end of a long day, we did not reach an agreement. But we will be returning to continue negotiations tomorrow morning,&#8221; registered nurse Lori Schmidt said around 10:30 p.m.</p><p>Efforts to reach a hospital spokesperson were not immediately successful.</p><p>Monday&#8217;s talks followed negotiations four days ago and added to the more than 20 sessions scheduled since December 2017, with staffing at the forefront of the demands sought by the 400 plus registered nurses represented by the Wyoming Valley Nurses Association.</p><p>The union&#8217;s contract expired on Jan. 31, 2018.</p><p>Last week the union, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, set a one-day strike for Feb. 13 if no progress was made in the negotiations with the hospital&#8217;s owner, Community Health Systems.</p><p>The union went on strike last May and was locked out by the hospital for four days. The hospital said it has contingency plans in place if the union walked out.</p><p>The nurses&#8217; union has demanded that CHS &#8212; a publicly traded company based in Tennessee that operates WBGH and other hospitals in Northeastern Pennsylvania under regional network Commonwealth Health &#8212; fill the more than 100 vacant positions in order to cut back on the mandatory overtime. Many nurses work double shifts and have too many patients to take care of, the union said.</p><p>The state Department of Health backed the union&#8217;s claims after conducting a surprise inspection last year. The hospital said it has addressed the deficiencies found by the state that got involved based on documents submitted by the union on the working conditions of its members.</p><p>Members of the union have attended Wilkes-Barre City Council and Luzerne County Council meetings to enlist support from elected officials and encouraged them to write letters to Cornelio Catena, CEO of WBGH, for &#8220;a reasonable agreement on staffing issues.&#8221;</p><p>The possibility of the sale of WBGH also came up at the Wilkes-Barre City Council meeting on Jan. 24. CHS has been selling hospitals throughout the country in order to reduce its debt load. Councilman Tony Brooks said he was concerned that the number of advertisements by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center shown locally presaged a deal with CHS.</p><p>If there was such a sale, the hospital would go back to a non-profit owner and eliminate up to $500,000 in tax revenue for the city, Brooks said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre General Hospital </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL010518WBGeneral.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre General Hospital </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott and Dan Stokes</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta></shirttailMeta></div>

WBGH, nurses still negotiating