the end could be near in the bitter nurses strike at RWJ University Hospital in New Brunswick which marks four months today since 1,700 nurses walked off the job and to the picket line that's where they've remained while hospital and Union leadership battled through tense negotiations reaching a tentative agreement on Friday now few details are known but it does include pay increases along with enforcable safe Staffing ratios that was a significant sticking point for the nurses a senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports the contract still has to be approved by union members and there's no potential date for when those nurses will return to work has this strike been hard for you yes okay you know I make the money I never thought we would be out here this long Judy Danella and several strike weary nurses were on the picket line once again today outside of RWJ University Hospital it's day 123 of the strike where nurses are pushing for enforcable Staffing ratios in the hospital but the strike could soon be coming to an end we did sign a memorandum of agreement we did sign that we're still waiting for informational sessions and a vote sometime hopefully within the next uh 10 days or something like that Union leadership still hasn't shared the details of the agreement with its members but called it in a statement a historic agreement that includes enforcable safe Staffing standards for the first time the hospital saying it reflects our shared goals of providing the highest quality patient care and creating a safe and supportive working environment for our nurses this has been a long and and pretty bitter strike and um the nurses have said all along that they were going to hold out for enforcable nurse patient ratios and they seem to have achieved that so it's good news congressman Frank Pallon had a hand in the discussions between the hospital and nurse say he's hopeful today about this tentative deal a hospital is spending a lot of money hiring temporary nurses and the nurses are out of work and don't have health insurance so when we when they came together for this latest agreement we've been encouraging uh you know them to not only do it but saying that you know this seems like a good agreement but this isn't the first time a deal was reached that the union members later turned down our members did not agree on it um so hopefully this one will will be presented and they will agree on it and we will go back to work given the size of RWJ Barnabas Health which owns RWJ University Hospital and is an underwriter of NJ Spotlight news the impact of this deal could be far-reaching I think we will see um a huge amount of pressure for all of Barnabas to adopt these these ratios these these minimum uh Staffing levels and what what we may then see is a greater willingness of Barnabas and other healthcare providers to support legislation so that everybody has a Level Playing Field and everybody has those minimum ratios a bill s304 was introduced in May by Senators Joe Vitale and Linda Greenstein and would require among its list of nurse ratios one nurse for every five patients on a medical or surgical unit one for every two patients in critical care and one nurse per patient in trauma it covers Staffing of Developmental and psychiatric facilities as well this is not just strike just that will stop once we it has been resolved it will continue until New Jersey gets achiev safe Staffing ratios until that is passed in the um legislator at this point it's a timing issue to see which moves forward first a finalized contract here or the legislature finally taking up the Staffing ratio bill in the lame duck session they say that they're going to put put it fourth for the lame duck in January so I can only hope that that happens and that it passes through that hope a sentiment you could feel in the air on this picket line today in New Brunswick I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight [Music] news