More than 7,000 nurses at two major New York City hospitals went on strike Monday, saying staffing levels at private-sector facilities are inadequate and that pay should be higher.
(Bloomberg) — More than 7,000 nurses at two major New York City hospitals went on strike Monday, saying staffing levels at private-sector facilities are inadequate and that pay should be higher.
Nurses say vacancies and under-staffing put patients at risk, especially as the city confronts the so-called tripledemic of Covid-19, flu and RSV infections. What constitutes sufficient staffing has been at the heart of disputes between nurses and hospitals for years. Then the pandemic spiked turnover, forcing hospitals to fill gaps with expensive travel nurses and pushing their operating margins negative. Hospitals say the resulting crisis leaves them less room to maneuver, an argument the nurses dispute.
In preparation to picket on Monday morning, nurses at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and Montefiore Medical Center, in the Bronx, opened cardboard boxes of signs asking for a “fair contract for patients and nurses.”
A spokesperson for Mount Sinai said negotiations faltered after 1 a.m. on Monday morning after the nurses’ association rejected a 19.1% wage increase agreed to by eight other hospitals, including two other Mount Sinai health campuses.
Mount Sinai earlier suspended elective procedures and began transferring some infants from its neonatal intensive care units in preparation for the strike, according to spokeswoman Lucia Lee.
“We’re prepared to minimize disruption, and we encourage Mount Sinai nurses to continue providing the world-class care they’re known for, in spite of NYSNA’s strike,” Lee said in an emailed statement on Monday, referring to the New York State Nurses Association.
“Nurses don’t want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,” the NYSNA said in a statement over the weekend.
The association urged patients in need to continue to seek care at hospitals and emphasized it would not constitute crossing a strike line.
City, State Response
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the city and state are prepared to handle a strike.
Adams said the city is activating its situation room to monitor hospital operations citywide, the fire department has contingency plans to reroute ambulances and the city’s public hospitals have emergency strategies to handle a surge in patients.
“While New York City is prepared for a potential strike, we are hopeful that all parties keep working to reach a voluntary agreement,” Adams said in a statement on Sunday.
Hochul said the New York State Department of Health will continue to enforce staffing requirements under the law and urged Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai to continue arbitration.
NewYork-Presbyterian reached an agreement with 4,000 members Dec. 31, and the union arrived at tentative contracts on behalf of 1,300 workers at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center and with 550 at Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island Wednesday. Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West campuses reached a tentative agreement with the union on Sunday.
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