After a year and a half, Cayuga County nurses in the New York State Nurses Association are still waiting for a labor contract to be signed by the county.

Thursday night's contract mediation session may be a sign to an end of negotiations with county legislators.

The county's Ways and Means Committee and union members met in a private mediation session Thursday night to discuss labor contracts with the union, said Murry Solomon, a labor relations specialist for Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES.

Since Jan. 1, 2005, 45 county nurses have been working without contracts.

“If any negotiations are made in the meeting tonight, nurses have to accept the agreement and then the legislature has to approve the contract,” Solomon said.

Health insurance and wages are topics of negotiation.

As of December, there has been no talk of increasing the nurses' mid-$30,000 range salaries.

Nurses were also asked to raise the number of years of service required to receive health insurance coverage into retirement from 10 to 20 years.

After disagreement, the county asked the Public Employment Relations Board to help make an agreement for a contract.