Norwich — Less than 18 hours after contract negotiations had bogged down the previous night, members of the registered nurses’ union at Backus Hospital hand-delivered a notice Friday afternoon that they intend to stage a two-day unfair labor practice strike over issues that include pay and COVID-19 protections.

Unless ongoing talks yield a settlement or at least significant progress in pursuit of one, union members will strike from 7 a.m. Oct. 13 to 7 a.m. Oct. 15.

More than two dozen Backus Federation of Nurses members walked together to the hospital’s main entrance around 3:30 p.m. Friday, where Sherri Dayton, the union’s president, went inside and presented a document to Kelly Schenking, a Backus human resources official.

Within minutes, Hartford HealthCare, which owns Backus, posted an online message from Donna Handley, president of Backus and Windham hospitals.

“I am deeply, deeply disappointed in the nurses’ notification of a two-day strike,” Handley says in the one-minute video. “I am a nurse. I have been a nurse for 41 years. I have spent my whole career caring for patients and my community — and the community needs us now more than ever with the increasing COVID-19 cases. This is a time to join together in the fight against COVID. I believe in my heart that we have done everything to avoid a strike. We will work around the clock to reach an agreement. We have met 19 times."

“But here is my pledge to you,” she continues. “Backus Hospital will remain open. Our world-class programs and services will be here to care for you. We are safe and we are prepared to care for you.”

Members of the union, which has been without a contract since July 31, voted Sept. 13 to authorize a strike. The union bargaining committee opted to file a required 10-day notice of a strike following a negotiating session that ended late Thursday night.

“Things didn’t go anywhere last night,” Jessica Harris, vice president of the union, formally known as AFT Connecticut, Local 5149, said Friday.

Jan Hochadel, president of AFT Connecticut, the union’s state affiliate, attended the session in a show of solidarity, as did John Brady, a state union vice president and a former Backus nurse.

“I have followed these negotiations very closely and I have heard from our nurses how frustrating the progress has been. I share those frustrations,” Hochadel said in a presentation Thursday night. “Negotiations have been ongoing since June — and progress towards a contract that is fair to our nurse heroes — a contract that protects the needs of the community — have been painfully slow and disrespectful.”

Hochadel said the union’s very need to negotiate more than one lactation room for all Backus employees illustrated her point. She said Backus loses nurses to other local hospitals because “it continues to pay under-market wages” and that changes in the nurses’ insurance coverage also are an issue.

She also raised concerns about the personal protective equipment, or PPE, worn by nurses who treat COVID-19 patients.

“Outbreaks of COVID-19 in the OR, E3, CCU, and E4 have left the nurses very concerned about their safety and the safety of their patients, their families and the community,” Hochadel said, referring to specific hospital units. “Statements from management that ‘PPE has always been available’ are not truthful. The nurses are living with the shortages every shift. The reuse and extended use of PPE is a work hazard and an infection control disaster in the making. The nurses simply seek an assurance from the hospital — a commitment to provide a safe working environment and a return to full infection control practices.”

An internal union communication disseminated among union members described a presentation Thursday night by the hospital’s chief negotiator as “condescending and insulting.” The negotiator implied it was staff members’ lapses in the use of PPE that caused recent outbreaks of COVID-19 among staff members “as if staff getting sick couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the hospital’s policy of reusing single-use PPE or their inability to do rapid testing on all patients ...,” the communication says.

In a statement issued last month, Handley, the Backus president, said PPE has been available to staff and patients “100 percent of the time.”

“I need to be clear that any statement to the contrary is inaccurate,” she said. “Staff may request replacement PPE from their manager at any time. If anyone has specific concerns about access to PPE, they are asked to please let their managers know, or bring them to my attention.”

In its notice Friday, the union said it would picket at Backus and at the Plainfield Emergency Care Center and the Plainfield Infusion Center in Plainfield and at the Backus Outpatient Care Center on Route 82 in Norwich.

“If, on or after 7 a.m. on Thursday, October 15th, 2020, the hospital locks out, refuses to reinstate or otherwise delays reinstatement of employees represented by the union, then you are hereby notified that the union will engage in picketing beginning at that time,” the union’s notice says.

State law requires an institution that receives a union strike notice to file a "strike contingency plan" with the commissioner of the state Department of Public Health no later than five days before the date of the strike.

On Thursday, the state health department issued a COVID-19 alert for Norwich following a surge in cases of the coronavirus disease in the city.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com