EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio - After a month of failed attempts to negotiate, the contract for around 130 employees at East Liverpool City Hospital expired. Negotiations on a new contract started in December, and ended with two meetings in the same week in January.

The SEIU employees currently working without a contract include hospital billing, maintenance, pharmacy techs, respiratory nurses aids, unit secretaries, medical imaging maintenance and cafeteria employees.

SEIU District 1199 union representative Chrissy Lewis said the negotiation process has been slow and frustrating.

“Management's point-of-view seems to be that everything should just remain the same, but a lot's changed over the last three years, and we're trying to get our contract up and in line with what the changes have been,” said Lewis. “We made absolutely zero progress.”

To name a few concerns, Lewis said the union is asking for consistent scheduling, safety measures and higher staffing levels. 

One of the biggest problems is the current wages.

“We have workers who are making minimum wage working at a hospital, which is just ridiculous. You can't function. Most of our workers now have two some of them have three jobs that they're working just be able to pay their bills, and yet they're saving lives every day,” said Lewis.

Lewis also said the treatment of employees is something they want to make sure is addressed.

“We have a problem with supervisors not all respecting their workers, raising their voice at workers, talking down to workers being disrespectful. And so it's just a matter of when they ask to have a union rep with them, because they're afraid of their boss. They should be able to have that,” said Lewis.

Lewis also opened a case with the National Labor Relations Board after not having an information request fulfilled about the staffing of respiratory therapists.

“ because we don't believe that they're staffed correctly. We believe that there should be more respiratory therapists on the floor at all times, and we can't get the information from them to be able to prove that, so they're refusing to furnish it,” said Lewis.

The union is now planning an informational picket, and are looking at ways to fight back through social media.

SEIU will go back to the negotiation table January 27, 28 and 29. If an agreement is not reached, Lewis said the union will vote on next steps, which could include a vote to strike.

Lewis said the hospital would not be able to operate without the 130 SEIU employees.

“We operate the cafeteria. We have housekeeping that keeps the building sanitized. We have the nurses aides that take care of the patients every day. We have the unit secretaries that make sure that people are getting transferred to where they're supposed to be. They can't run, you know, do respiratory, they can't do medical imaging without us. They can't function,” said Lewis.