By Jonathan Dube

NEW MILFORD -- STALEMATE.

After battling intensely over a new contract for the past year, New Milford Hospital and its nurses union have finally reached a deadlock. No more meetings are scheduled. No new proposals will be offered. For better or worse, the two sides have left the negotiating table and are taking their fight to the community.

The battle could be a lengthy one. The hospital has made its ''final'' offer and the nurses overwhelmingly rejected it. With neither side willing to budge, the prospect of a settlement appears more and more unlikely every day.

"I think the hospital's negotiators need to take a reality check," said Robert Traber, the union negotiator. "They think if they just beat their chests and stare intensely, the nurses are just going to collapse. That's not true."

But the hospital stands firm. "The ball is in the nurses' court," said Robert Sommer, hospital vice president for human resources.

The way the community reacts may largely determine the outcome of the dispute. If the nurses garner large support, people could stop donating money to the hospital and start boycotting board members' businesses. Such pressure would be hard for the hospital to ignore.

But if, on the other hand, the community takes the hospital's side and ignores the union's protests, the nurses would lose most of their leverage. In such a scenario, the union would likely be beat.

Many issues are at stake. The hospital's final offer was for a 6.5 percent wage increase, which the union says is workable.

Nurses say they rejected the contract because of other issues, including control of hours, staffing, scheduling, promotions, layoffs and the pay scale system.

Nurses' hourly wages range from $18.35 to $22.18 at New Milford Hospital, while they range from $18.72 to $25.73 at Danbury Hospital. But nurses complain the pay-scale system at New Milford Hospital further restricts their earnings. While less than five percent of New Milford nurses make the maximum, about two-thirds of Danbury nurses make it, Traber said.

The nurses have begun collecting petition signatures and sending letters to hospital donors asking them to withhold all contributions. The union has also challenged hospital officials to a public debate, but they declined. In the future, nurses will consider picketing, holding candlelight vigils, speaking on radio talk shows and calling for boycotts of board members' businesses.

"If we're going to put up a fight, we've got to justify our position to the community," Traber said. "If the theory is right and it's a community hospital, then what the community thinks should matter."

The hospital, meanwhile, has run advertisements in local newspapers summarizing its positions. Hospital officials say they have made their "best, last and final" offer and progress will only be made if the nurses accept it.

At any point the hospital could further escalate the situation by declaring an impasse and unilaterally imposing its contract proposal, as it has threatened to do.

But Sommer said the hospital has no plans of doing so.

"I don't see any decision being made in the immediate future," he said. "We're just waiting to see what the nurses do."

Traber said unilateral imposition would not deter the nurses.

"There's no way we're going to go away if they impose," Traber said. "We'll keep fighting."

How far the nurses are willing to go is not clear yet. The nurses say they are firmly united and will do whatever it takes to get what they deserve. But the nurses insist they will not strike, because they say they do not want to jeopardize patient care.

"We don't want it to come to that point," registered nurse Joanne Chapin said. "It would be terrible for the patients, the nurses and the hospital."

Nevertheless, the hospital has taken precautions, drawing up a plan of action in case of a strike, Sommer said.

"Although the hospital is not expecting a strike, we would be negligent if we did not make preparations for such a scenario," Sommer said.

Sommer declined to comment on the plan except to say, "It would allow us to insure 100 percent patient care safety."

So far the bitter dispute between the hospital and the nurses has not affected the care of patients, according to both nurses and hospital officials.

"Our nurses have been very professional in dealing with patient care," Sommer said. "They have been able to make a distinction between being upset about the bargaining process and doing their work, and I think that shows a high degree of responsibility."

The nurses, who formed the union in July 1993, became especially infuriated last month when the hospital canceled the regularly scheduled hours of several nurses. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the hospital. The hospital further inflamed the nurses when it offered to send them retroactive checks by Christmas if they approved the hospital's contract offer. The nurses called it a "Christmas bribe" and voted the offer down 99-9.

Nurses say such actions exemplify the hospitals lack of respect for nurses. Respect, they say, is really the central issue underlying the dispute.

"I think they're making a big mistake," registered nurse Walter O'Connor said. "They're ignoring the largest professional body in the hospital and they haven't shown any professional respect to nurses in years, if not for decades."

"Since the negotiations began, none of us have been surprised by their attitude or the way we've been treated," Chapin said. "It's all about professional respect -- that's what we're fighting for."

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