Nurses at two major New York City hospitals are going back to work after ending a 3-day strike and agreeing to a new contract that will guarantee both higher staffing levels and wages.
(Bloomberg) — Nurses at two major New York City hospitals are going back to work after ending a 3-day strike and agreeing to a new contract that will guarantee both higher staffing levels and wages.
Nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx will return to the hospitals on Thursday at 7 a.m.
“Mount Sinai nurses will walk back into the hospital this morning at 7 a.m. after winning wall-to-wall safe staffing ratios for all inpatient units with firm enforcement so that there will always be enough nurses at the bedside to provide safe patient care,” New York State Nurses Association President Nancy Hagans said in a statement Thursday morning.
More than 7,000 nurses went on strike Monday after their contracts expired at the end of December, forcing hospitals to reduce care, cancel some elective procedures and transfer patients to nearby facilities. After three days of picket lines — and a call by New York City Mayor Eric Adams for residents to seek care only when necessary — the nurses union and the hospitals said on Thursday they came to a tentative contract deal.
Representatives for about 9,000 nurses at several other private-sector hospitals who gave notice of intent to strike concluded agreements in recent days, avoiding a broader walkout.
Read More: Thousands of New York City Nurses Strike at Two Hospitals
Unions and hospitals have clashed over what they consider to be safe staffing levels. Nurses say facilities underinvested in bedside care, prompting turnover, while hospitals point to a shortage of available workers. Striking nurses said they cared for too many patients and that their concerns weren’t heeded as the city confronts the so-called tripledemic of Covid-19, flu and RSV infections.
“We’re treated like step-kids,” said Linda Sobers, who’s spent her 23-year career as a nurse at Mount Sinai. “We’ve been swept in the corner, and no one’s listening to us.” Sobers said staffing became problematic a few years ago around the same time nurses were required to spend more hours on computers documenting care.
As part of the new labor agreement, new staffing ratios will go into effect with financial penalties for hospitals failing to comply, according to the nurses union.
Mount Sinai, which operates eight hospitals, is working to build and retain a pipeline of nurses, including through educational investments, spokeswoman Lucia Lee said. “Over the last three years alone, we’ve hired more than 4,000 new nurses with 503 more nurses working today than in 2019 — far exceeding our 2019 hiring commitment to NYSNA,” she said in an email.
“We know this strike impacted everyone—not just our nurses—and we were committed to coming to a resolution as soon as possible to minimize disruption to patient care,” Montefiore said in a statement.
Nurses at eight private-sector hospitals gave notice of a planned strike on Dec. 30, the day before contracts there and at four other institutions expired.
NewYork-Presbyterian, Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island, Flushing Hospital Medical Center in Queens, BronxCare Health System, Brooklyn Hospital Center and Mount Sinai’s Morningside and Mount Sinai West campuses all reached agreements in advance of the strike deadline. Nurses at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn also reached a tentative deal and withdrew their 10-day strike notice.
Read More: Hospitals Struggle to Keep Nurses Even With Billions in U.S. Aid
(Updates with details throughout.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.