With less than 48 hours before nurses are set to walk off the job at some New York City hospitals, their union says agreements have been reached at more facilities. But the strike threat remains at four hospitals.
Negotiations at Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian are continuing through the weekend, according to the New York State Nurses Association.
“From day one, nurses have been ready to bargain,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said Saturday. The hospitals that still haven’t reached an agreement “have chosen to throw away hundreds of millions of dollars fighting against their own frontline nurses.”
The union says key sticking points include what it says are threats to cut healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, an attempt to roll back safe staffing standards that nurses won after striking at two major hospitals three years ago, and what they call a refusal to agree to protections from workplace violence.
But a Montefiore official responds by accusing the union’s leadership of making “reckless and irresponsible demands totaling $3.6 billion, including a nearly 40% wage increase.” The hospital also claims NYSNA is “taking issue with our reasonable measures like rolling out panic buttons for frontline staff in the Emergency Department.”
“So far, the NYS Nurses Association hasn’t moved off from its unrealistic demand of nearly 30% wage increases over three years and refuses to respond to our economic and staffing proposals,” said a NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson.
After originally threatening a 10-day walkout at hospitals in the city and on Long Island, the union says more walkouts were averted Friday. Nurses at The Brooklyn Hospital Center and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center reached full tentative agreements. NYSNA says Bronxcare nurses also rescinded their strike notice based on agreements reached on nurse staffing, health care and wages.
The three Long Island hospitals that faced a strike threat have also struck deals, according to the union. “Northwell/ Plainview Hospital, Syosset and Huntington nurses signed tentative agreements on new contracts yesterday that protect safe patient care,” it said in a statement Saturday.
The strike would begin at some of the remaining hospitals at 6:00 AM Monday.
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