After months of picketing, members of a union representing more than 500 Westmoreland County employees are now working without a contract.

The four-year pact with the county expired at midnight Dec. 31, said Maria Saccani, a licensed practical nurse at county-owned Westmoreland Manor and union delegate who has been taking part in negotiations.

Members of Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare Pennsylvania plan to brave the cold weather Tuesday for another round of informational pickets. They will meet at the Westmoreland County Courthouse in Greensburg and at the entrance to the complex where Westmoreland Manor is located along Route 119 in Hempfield.

Negotiations have been ongoing for months. Licensed practical nurse Tammy Steban, who is union vice president at the Manor, said she hopes the two sides reach an agreement soon.

“We can’t just stop doing what we’re doing just because we think things are going well,” she said.

The union represents nurses and other staff at Westmoreland Manor in addition to 911 emergency center dispatchers, Area Agency on Aging caseworkers, juvenile detention and probation officers, and some courthouse workers. They have been picketing for several months as part of their efforts to secure increased pay and measures to address understaffing.

“We feel the union is entitled to what the commissioners got,” Saccani said, referring to 17% cost-of-living wage increases since the start of 2022 for the county commissioners and row officers. Those annual raises are based on the Consumer Price Index as mandated by a county ordinance.

Salaries for union employees had been limited by the terms of the now-expired agreement that called for 2% average annual raises.

Westmoreland County offices were closed Monday for the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Officials previously declined to discuss specifics of personnel or negotiations but said they were working to reach a deal that recognized the work of union employees while respecting taxpayers.

Workers will picket from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesday.

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