PLAINS TWP. — Unionized licensed practical nurses and technical employees at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center voted by 98% Wednesday to authorize a potential strike at GWV, Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Healthplex if ongoing contract negotiations with Geisinger fall through.

The strike authorization does not mean there will definitely be a strike. It just means union members now have the ability to vote for one if they feel they need.

According to a press release, the 360 GWV respiratory, radiology and procedural workers, who are part of the state Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have now joined fellow union members at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton, who similarly voted last month to authorize a strike if necessary.

Negotiations between Geisinger and the GWV LPN and technical union resumed Thursday and there are several more bargaining sessions set to take place in the coming weeks.

Two weeks ago on April 17, several union members held a press conference at the Holiday Inn-East Mountain in Plains Twp., where they discussed their continued fight for fair pay and safe working conditions amid nationwide staffing shortages, high turnover rates and increased corporate consolidation in health care.

Risant Health, created by California-based Kaiser Permanente, completed its acquisition of Geisinger on March 31.

“We don’t want it to get to the point of striking. We would like to reach an agreement with Geisinger,” Montanez said.

“I think they really should look at their hospitals and say that they want to put that money and keep it here in the communities that they currently have established,” Montanez said.

Geisinger Wyoming Valley MRI tech Megan Karpich, 36, said that she felt both sides had put in a lot of effort in progressing negotiations and hopes that will continue until an agreement is reached.

“We want to make sure that we work persistently on this so that we can better serve our health care community and and our patients going forward. That’s really what we wanna accomplish here,” Karpich said.

Although neither employee felt comfortable commenting on the details of the negotiations, Karpich did say that the end goal for all involved should be to retain employees and recruit new ones in order to stay a competitive health care system and provide the best health care in the area.

“Our hope is that Geisinger will return to negotiations with a real commitment to invest in our hospital,” Karpich said in the press release. “But we’re prepared to do what’s necessary to stand up for our professions, our patients, and our community.”