Northwell Health/Putnam Hospital Nurses Speak Out to Demand Safe Staffing and a Fair Contract!
On Tuesday, June 16, NYSNA nurses at Northwell Health/Putnam Hospital held a speak-out to demand a fair contract that includes enforceable safe staffing language to care for their community! For months, nurses have been bargaining with Northwell Health, their new employer, but management refuses to include safe staffing language in their contract. They also recently proposed changes that would make staffing even worse across the hospital, putting patient care at risk.
Northwell/ Putnam management proposed an outrageous and unsafe 1-nurse-to-8-patients safe staffing standard in medical/surgical units. The widely recognized safe staffing standard in med/surg units is 1:5. Putnam’s current standard is 1:6. Most hospitals in New York state set their standards at 1:5 or 1:6.
To push back on these proposed changes and to amplify their demands for a fair contract, nurses held a speak-out with allies. At the speak-out, Nicole Cadella, RN, president of the NYSNA local bargaining unit at Northwell/ Putnam Hospital, said: “I live in this community, and my parents and I have been patients at Putnam. I want this hospital to be the best it can be, but it can’t be the best if it is understaffed. On our main hospital floors—the medical/surgical units—nurses sometimes have 8 patients each, when the safe standard is 5 or 6. I just imagine my father in that hospital bed.”
New York State Senator Pete Harkam, Assembly Member Matt Slater, Westchester/Putnam Central Labor Body Executive Director and Westchester County Legislator Jen Puja, and Vice-President of the Westchester/Putnam Central Labor Body Marty Sommer joined nurses at the speak-out. Nurses’ action received coverage in Mid-Hudson News [LINK ], the Yonkers Times [LINK ] and News12.
Fighting for Safe Staffing
Like many of their NYSNA siblings across the state, Putnam nurses’ chief demands are around safe staffing. Nurses refuse to settle a fair contract that does not include safe staffing standards. Nurses say that working understaffed is not uncommon at the hospital; in December 2025, nurses in the hospital’s two medical surgical units started their shift understaffed nearly half the time.
In fact, understaffing is a problem across Northwell Health facilities. Earlier this year, NYSNA nurses at three Northwell hospitals in Long Island – Huntington Hospital, Plainview Hospital, and Syosset Hospital – bargained for new contracts, and safe staffing was a sticking point in each of their contract fights. Ultimately, nurses at all three hospitals won improved staffing language, with Huntington nurses winning safe staffing standards for the first time.
What’s Next?
Frontline nurses know that safe staffing saves lives – and that’s why Putnam nurses refuse to settle for anything less than a fair contract that includes safe staffing language. Many of the Putnam nurses are deeply entrenched in their community, whether they’ve lived their entire lives in Putnam County or moved there more recently; their families, friends, and loved ones are Putnam patients. For Putnam nurses, this fight is about ensuring that the people they see day in and day out have access to the safe, quality care that every patient deserves.
Keep up the great work, Putnam nurses!