Mount Sinai RNs to picket hospital on Thursday

Nurses seeking to improve work environment

MANHATTAN, Feb. 21, 2008 – Mount Sinai Hospital’s registered nurses are telling management that demanding givebacks will not help the Upper East Side facility recruit and retain RNs.

The RNs say that nurse-to-patient staffing is already so low that they’ve had to file official protests to their assignments because they’re concerned about the quality of care their patients receive.

To demonstrate the gravity of this issue, the nurses will conduct an informational picket from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21, in front of the hospital’s Klingenstein Clinical Center at 1450 Madison Ave., north of 99th St.

The 1,900 RNs are represented by the New York State Nurses Association. Their most recent three-year contract expired on Dec. 31, 2007. The RNs have been trying to improve the hospital’s ability to recruit and retain nurses through contract improvements, such as increasing longevity pay. Instead, management has continued to demand givebacks:

Requiring RNs to be out of work for more than eight days before they can claim sick time. If they’re sick for less than eight days, the nurses would have to use their personal time. Management also wants to require nurses to make up on weekends any time they’ve missed while sick.
Eroding seniority rights, starting with granting priority for vacation time. Management also wants to limit when this vacation time can be used. The Nurses Association believes this discriminates against experienced nurses and is intended to undermine the strength of the nurses’ union.
Offering salary increases of 2%, which is not only below inflation, but below the average annual increase earned by RNs at other Manhattan medical centers. Anything higher would be subject to pay-for-performance standards that would be determined solely by management.

“The nurses are trying to make their work environment better, but cuts like these will just drive good nurses to other facilities,” said Lucille Sollazzo, RN, representative for the Nurses Association. “Mount Sinai is simply not doing enough to hold onto its nurses and it’s the community that will suffer.”

The next bargaining sessions are scheduled for the week of Feb. 25.

With more than 36,000 members, the New York State Nurses Association is the nation's oldest and largest state nurses’ association. NYSNA fosters high standards of nursing education, research, and practice; engages in legislative activity; and provides collective bargaining services to registered nurses. Its mission is to advance the profession of nursing and protect the public's health.

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