more than 1700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick are on strike for a fifth day they walked off the job Friday after contract negotiations between the hospital and the nurses Union stalled Staffing levels and increased paid sick days Remain the sticking point between both sides the nurses say depleted Staffing levels are creating dangerous conditions for patients and causing burnout for workers Robert Wood Johnson health and underwriter of NJ Spotlight news has maintained that the medical facility remains open fully operational and completely staffed thanks to replacement nurses Judy danella is president of the nurses Union she says passion on the picket line is at an all-time high she joins me now Judy thanks for taking some time today let me start first with an update on negotiations where do things stand right now we're supposed to the mediator called us back we are supposed to meet tomorrow morning with the hospital for the mediator's request what's inside though the latest offer from the hospital can you share any details well the second proposal that they had given out pretty much mirrors the First with a minor little change with the on-call but everything else was pretty much the same as the one that the members rejected 75 and so list for us what that includes that includes um the safe Staffing but with the caveats of if somebody calls out sick they would the penalty wouldn't be attached and with the core deficit that still remained in there you still wanted that to be removed um they did do the on-call they made it six dollars plus time and a half and the Caps of the insurance they wanted zero eight and eight we still want to move it down because it's a self-insured plan that we feel they can do better than that we really wanted zero zero zero just for the fact that the high insurance premiums that we pay to begin with yeah I mean the Staffing situation in particular has been an issue for you all but also for nurses you know at facilities across the state across the country what has that been like and give us a sense of what you all are up against well I think again because of the nursing shortage it is um you know it's harming itself with a nursing shortage but I I think in general with the replacement workers that they have in there now they are giving them Better Staffing guidelines than we could ever have maybe because they're paying high dollars for these people to come in but New York just New York just approved another big contract yesterday if they can do it like I said we've tried for 20 years to get this through the state and we're hitting roadblocks after roadblocks after roadblocks I think if the state took a little initiative and if the hospitals worked with them we could probably get this passed and everybody would have the ratios meaning would you like to see the governor's office step in here I absolutely would yes where does that stand is that even on the table um it is not to my knowledge they have not um they may have been in touch with the usw headquarters but not locally with us they have not I mean at this point you all are on day five we're talking about a massive hospital system here in the state how long do you foresee this going how long do you all plan on staying on the picket lines that's really up to the hospital we're already willing and able to sit down to get our workers back to work and to get our nurses back to the hospital that we built I mean what type of scenario does that create for your nurses obviously they have mortgages rent to pay bills to pay if we are in fact looking at a protracted strike no the one good thing they'll get unemployment it doesn't pay the salaries that we we make as nurses um the usw has a strike in fund defense and I think actually some nurses are probably going to start looking for other jobs because you know like I say the emails we're getting every day is just like we love our replacement workers that's what they're saying and just the respect and like I say after 28 years it's hard for us to even want to continue my employment there I will continue but not with the press releases that are going out that are saying that we're just greedy individuals Judy danella is the president of the United steelworkers Local 4-200 on the situation there with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Judy thank you thank you so much thank you [Music]