Labor negotiations between nurses of The Queen’s Medical Center’s downtown and West Oahu campuses and the hospital’s management continued today, the fourth straight day of talks leading up to a planned three-day strike over unfair labor practices.

“The Queen’s nurses have been participating in 12-hour negotiation sessions and working hard to reach an agreement,” Hawai’i Nurses’ Association President Rosalee Agas-Yuu said in a statement. “We are all hoping to avert a strike.

The 1,900 nurses at Queen’s have been working without a contract since June 30, and have been in negotiations for a new one since mid-April.

The strike was originally scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Monday, but both HNA and Queen’s management subsequently agreed to a start time of 7 a.m.

If there is a strike, it would continue through Thursday at 6:59 a.m.

Queen’s Chief Nursing Executive Linda Puu said hospital management regrets the uncertainty this situation creates for the community.

“Queen’s serves the sickest and most vulnerable patients in Hawai’i,” she said in a statement. “We take this responsibility seriously and find it disheartening that our nurses are being led down a path that could negatively impact them, their families, this prestigious institution, our patients, and the mission of our Founders, King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma.

“Our top priority remains to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of quality, safe patient care. As is standard practice, we have contracted with staffing agencies to provide a sufficient number of licensed, and experienced temporary replacement nurses should a strike take place.”

On Tuesday, the 159-member nursing staff at Wilcox Medical Center on Kauai is planning its own three-day strike to protest unfair labor practices. Wilcox, which is the largest medical center on Kauai and is part of Hawai‘i Pacific Health, notified Wilcox that the strike will begin at 7 a.m. and end at 6:59 a.m. on Friday.

Over the New Year’s holiday, union nurses at both Queen’s and Wilcox voted to authorize strikes protesting unfair labor practices.

Last fall some 600 HNA nurses at Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children were locked out by management for 18 days after a one-day strike, which followed an earlier weeklong walkout in January. The lockout continued until Oct. 2 when a new three-year contract was reached that HNA said included the first contractually enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios in Hawaii history.