Ninety nurses are on strike for safe staffing and against illegal employer practices at East Harlem's Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center.
 
Maria Elizabeth Dimaano, RN, works the night shift at TCC, covering her unit with just one other nurse:  "We used to have three nurses on nights -- sometimes even four. Management cut that down to just two."
 
"Most of our patients are acutely ill -- trach and vent dependent, oxygen dependent." Some of Maria's patients are children.
 
There are so many patients to care for, Maria often has to take her work home: "We have to help each other because otherwise we wouldn't be able to finish our workload. I have to take care plans home to finish them."
 
"The staffing levels are really frustrating. We’re always running out of time. Our patients deserve safe staffing levels."
 
The strike began Friday at 7 a.m. and will run for 24 hours. The picket line is in East Harlem on Fifth Avenue between 105th and 106th Streets. You can show your support on Facebook here.