A strike will continue at Toledo, Ohio-based Mercy Health-St. Vincent Medical Center, after the hospital and the union representing its nurses, technicians and support staff ended this week without an agreement, according to The Blade.
Both sides are blaming each other for failed negotiations,, according to the report.
Negotiations took place three days this week between hospital officials and the United Automobile Workers, which represents about 1,000 nurses and about 900 technical and support employees at St. Vincent. The workers have been on strike since May 6 over staffing issues, on-call policies and healthcare costs.
Mercy Health said in an online update May 23 that hospital leaders provided UAW leaders with a proposal addressing all outstanding issues after extensive negotiations with a federal mediator, but the union would not recommend the proposal to their members.
"Once again, it appears the parties are at impasse," the update reads.
UAW officials, though, said in a statement obtained by TheBlade that hospital officials would not agree to assurances that would hold Mercy Health accountable if it failed to resolve staffing as promised.
"After three long negotiating sessions, and meaningful progress, Mercy Health's final proposal to the UAW included a promise to reduce mandatory on-call hours by 10 percent over 18 months. The UAW was willing to accept this if Mercy agreed to increase the hourly rate for on-call if the 10 percent benchmark was not achieved," the statement said. "In the past, Mercy has broken promises to adequately reduce the grueling hours that many hospital employees are forced to work. The union viewed the proposal for added on-call pay as an incentive for Mercy to keep its promise."
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