It would be a mistake for Forum Health to test their resolve by selling Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, union leaders said Thursday night.

They were backed by members of a community group that would like to dissolve the 1997 merger of Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Northside Medical Center that formed Forum Health.

They say money from the two Trumbull county hospitals is supporting continued losses at Northside, and the sale of either Hillside or TMH would be a major blow to health care in Trumbull County.

Leaders of the Hillside and Trumbull unions fear nonprofit Hillside could be sold very quickly to a for-profit company to help pay off Forum's debt, which is in excess of $140 million. They said a local nursing home owner has completed his research of the sale but has yet to sign a letter of intent to buy Hillside. Once that happens, the Ohio attorney general must review the sale.

Forum Health officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Tom Connelly, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees/United Nurses of America Local 2026 at Trumbull, said testing the union's resolve on the issue would be ''very foolish.''

''The day they tell us they are selling Hillside is the day I withdraw the rolling extension on our contract and go to the negotiating table,'' Connelly said.

His members would be looking to get back some of the concessions they made in the pact, he said. Members were willing to give up their pension in favor of a 401(k) plan and other to help save the Forum and the two Trumbull hospitals but not if it is going to the sold a for profit company, he said.

Deborha Bindas, AFSCME regional staff representative, said, ''This war will be won by community support.''

The Hillside workers have the support of the doctors and nurses union at Trumbull Memorial, another AFSCME local as well as several political officials who attended the meeting.

The group wants to at least delay the sale of Hillside until negotiations with two unions at Northside are complete to see if the concessions are enough to help Northside stabilize its finances. Northside workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union and the Ohio Nurses Association.

AFSCME, which represents workers at Hillside and Trumbull, is planning several actions to slow down to stop the sale of Hillside, said R. Sean Grayson, an attorney of the union's Ohio Council 8. AFSCME represents workers at Trumbull Memorial and Hillside.

The union plans to bring in a national media consultant to help educate the public about what the loss of Hillside would mean the the community and a petition drive to show the Forum board that the public opposes the sale.

State Rep. Tom Letson, D-Warren, and others said it is unclear what Attorney General Nancy Rogers will do, but if she general approves the sale, the union may go to court to appeal.

Grayson said the union is committed to putting its resources into the campaign to save Hillside.

Dr. Y.O. Sheth said the Trumbull Memorial medical staff twice has voted to dissolve the merger between Northside and Trumbull Memorial, and it is likely to do it again at its September meeting. He said the unions have the doctors full support.

Connelly said his nurses union also has asked the board to end the merger but ''they won't let us go.''

State Rep. Sandra Stabile Harwood, D-Niles, pledged her support to the group.

Members of the group see a close connection between Hillside and Trumbull and selling Hillside would hurt Trumbull while doing nothing to solve Forum's debt. Two leading agencies last month reducing their rating of Forum bonds, which are below investment grade, and the hospital system is in non-monetary default for failing to meet certain financial conditions in the bond agreement.

Bond holders recently agreed not to exercise their right to sell off Forum assets to get their money back.

Local businessman Gus Polychronis, a leader of the group, said it makes no sense to sell Hillside or Trumbull, as was contemplated last year, when Northside the weak link in the system's finances. He and others also said that the two Trumbull hospitals were built with charitable donations from Trumbull County residents, and in the case of Hillside, with Trumbull tax dollars. He said it would be unfair for Forum to sell those assets to a private company to prop up a Mahoning County hospital.

Polychronis said, ''We'll protect our hospitals whatever it takes.''

soravecz@tribtoday.com