Capital Health nurses back to bargaining table

The Capital District Health Authority's registered nurses are going back to the bargaining table Friday morning to continue negotiations to reach a new collective agreement.

The nurses are members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, Local 97.

Their current collective agreement expired October 31, 2009.

Earlier this month, a bargaining committee from the NSGEU recommended that the nurses in Local 97 reject a final offer from their employer and prepare for a strike.

"We are pleased to be called back to the table," said Joan Jessome, president of the NSGEU in a news release. "The bargaining committee will be going into talks on Friday ready and willing to negotiate a new collective agreement the members will accept as fair."

The union represents more than 2,500 nurses in Nova Scotia's largest health authority.

The registered nurses work in a variety of areas including mental health, public health, critical care, transplants, corrections, occupational health, education and rehabilitation.

They work at the Camp Hill Veterans' Memorial Building, the Victoria General sites, rehabilitation units and the Nova Scotia Hospital's forensic unit.