NEW YORK – Nurses in New York City, currently on strike, are poised to return to the negotiating table with hospital officials this Thursday in hopes of resolving what has been the city’s largest nursing strike in many years.
The New York State Nurses Association has announced that its representatives will engage in talks with NewYork-Presbyterian’s administration on Thursday evening, marking the fourth day since the strike began.
Discussions with other hospitals impacted by the strike, such as Mount Sinai and Montefiore, are set to occur on Friday. However, the union noted that not all institutions have consented to these meetings as of yet.
Negotiations are being handled separately by each medical facility, and the strike does not affect every hospital under the umbrella of the three health care systems involved.
The two parties have not convened since Sunday, which was the day before approximately 15,000 nurses, members of the union, commenced their strike action.
In response to the strike, hospitals have recruited thousands of temporary nurses to ensure that emergency rooms and other critical services continue to function.
The nurses say they’re seeking to protect their health care benefits, as well as secure contract provisions addressing staffing levels and safety against workplace violence.
Sheryl Ostroff, a Mount Sinai nurse, said nurses often bear the brunt of patients’ frustrations, and interactions can quickly become violent.
“I’ve been scratched in the face, I have been bitten in multiple places, I have been kicked in the ribs where it leaves bruises, spit on, pushed, punched, sexually assaulted — you name it,” she said at a union rally Thursday. “It’s not acceptable, and we want our hospitals to protect us. Why is that a hard ask?”
The hospitals say the unions are seeking “unrealistic” and unaffordable pay raises.
Mount Sinai says the union’s proposals would raise the average annual salary of its nurses from roughly $162,000 to nearly $250,000 in three years, while Montefiore says theirs would rise to $220,000.
The union dismissed the claims as “outlandish math,” but declined to provide countering figures.
“We are committed to keep negotiating for a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our deep respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” NewYork-Presbyterian said in a statement Thursday.
Nurses’ union leaders held a rally alongside elected officials and members of other major city labor unions Thursday in front of Mount Sinai’s Morningside campus.
The hospital, located near Columbia University in upper Manhattan, is among those that have not yet agreed to resume contract talks, according to the union.
Simone Way, a nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside, said she and her fellow nurses have “sounded the alarm for years” about proper staffing levels, but administrators have refused to listen.
“It is incredibly hard to deliver the level of care our patients deserve,” she said at the rally. “There are limits to what good nurses can do.”
A Mount Sinai spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the rally or the status of contract talks.
Brendan Carr, the health system’s CEO, said in a video released earlier Thursday that some unionized nurses who have opted to work instead of joining the picket line have been subjected to harassment and intimidation.
“Bullying, intimidating and threatening devalues nurses, undermines our culture, and is not consistent with our values at Mount Sinai,” he said, addressing hospital staff. “You deserve better.”
The union, which filed an unfair labor practice charge against Mount Sinai for terminating the three nurses on the eve of the strike, didn’t immediately respond.
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