The future of patient care in Rockland County is looking brighter, thanks to a new contract just inked by NYSNA RNs at Nyack Hospital.

It was not easy. Across the country, employers are demanding that nurses and our families make big sacrifices. Inequality is on the rise. Nyack execs wanted record cuts in our health benefits.

Imagine what the future of healthcare will look like if employers get their way. Fewer and fewer people will go into the profession of nursing. More nurses will burn out. Veteran nurses will leave. Patient care will suffer.

NYSNA nurses are pushing against that trend. And we won big in Nyack.

The Hunter College Alumni Association Board inducted NYSNA’s HHC Executive Council President Anne Bové, RN into the Hunter College Hall of Fame last week.

For our next lobby day, Tuesday, May 20, we’re joining with fellow healthcare unions from across the state, including PEF, CSEA, CWA and 1

HHC is our city’s healthcare lifeline. And our hospitals are powered by the care of NYSNA nurses. That was the message we brought to New Yorkers today at 10 speak-outs held across the city — at Bellevue, Harlem, Metropolitan, Queens, Elmhurst, Jacobi, North Central Bronx, Lincoln, Kings County, and Coney Island.

“Without HHC, more than a million New Yorkers would have nowhere to turn,” said Anne Bove, HHC and Mayorals Executive Council President, in an email to all NYSNA nurses in HHC. “At HHC, no patient is ever turned away – regardless of income, immigration status, or ability to pay. HHC is the country's largest and best public hospital system – and the care we give is the heart of HHC.”

“Over the last few decades, NYC has become the capital of inequality,” said Georgiana Chin, RN and NYSNA leader at Bellevue. “Except for us. We are the difference — the most significant bulwark against the inequality that’s come to define our city.”

Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, President of NYSNA, will speak Tuesday at a panel on “Labor and the ACA: Problems, Threats, and the Road Forward.”