The contract standoff at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet will resurface Monday when the nurses union stages information pickets outside the hospital.

The pickets will be held on a day when the Illinois Nurses Association, the union that represents nurses at the hospital, and Ascension hold its next bargaining session on a contract that expired in July.

“We will be coming to the table ready to bargain and hopefully settle this contract,” Sarah Hurd with the INA said in an emailed statement.

Ascension, meanwhile, is questioning the union’s decision to picket on the same day as negotiations.

“By planning this activity, we have to assume the union is not coming to the table intending to do the work necessary to reach a tentative agreement,” Ascension spokeswoman Olga Solares said in an emailed statement.

Solares said Ascension has hired 78 nurses in Joliet “through an extensive recruiting campaign” since implementing contract terms earlier this year under what hospital management said was its last, best and final offer.

“Most of these additional nurses are already on our units, supporting our care teams and providing quality care to our patients,” Solares said.

The contract terms implemented by Ascension included double-digit pay increases and other benefits that management says improve conditions and make nursing jobs more attractive at the Joliet hospital.

The union, however, has contended that the pay raises and other benefits do not go far enough to improve conditions at a hospital where the number of staff nurses fell by 300 before the recent hiring effort. The union also contests management’s right to impose conditions under its final offer.

The two sides are in their 12th month of negotiations since talks began last May.