General Hospital nurses will be picketing

WILKES-BARRE – Unionized nurses at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital plan to picket this weekend as negotiations for a new contract exceed a year.

Members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals scheduled the picketing from noon to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The two sides have been at odds since a subsidiary of Community Health Systems Inc. purchased the hospital and other assets of the Wyoming Valley Health Care System for $271 million in May 2009.

The new owner is bound by law to recognize the union representing more than 400 registered nurses, but it is does not have to adopt the collective bargaining agreement that was in place at the time of the sale.

The deal removed the hospital’s non-profit status and it became one of the holdings of for-profit CHS of Franklin, Tenn., the largest publicly traded hospital company in the country.

Highlighting the change, the union launched a campaign to gather public support with the slogan, “Patients Before Profits.”

The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this year, claiming the hospital has not paid an annual wage increase that was part of the five-year contract reached in October 2005.

The hospital agreed to honor the contract as long as there was no impasse and the union said its willingness to negotiate signaled that they were not at a standstill.

In addition, the hospital changed the health care coverage for employees, the union said.

Terry Marcavage, staff representative for PASNAP, said there is another round of negotiations this week. The public events are being held “to get the employer motivated,” said Marcavage.

Prior to the picketing, there will be a rally at 11 a.m. at the nearby Waterfront building on North River Street.

Hospital spokesman Jim McGuire said negotiations are ongoing, but had no update.

“We continue to work through the bargaining process and are hopeful we will reach a mutually acceptable agreement soon,” he said in a prepared statement.