Contact: Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489
Eliza M. Bates | eliza.bates@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
New Tentative Agreements Reached at Flushing, BronxCare and The Brooklyn Hospital Center
NYSNA Nurses at Maimonides Ratify New Contract with 94% Voting in Favor, RUMC and NY Presbyterian Have 1 More Day of Voting
Mount Sinai Labor and Delivery and NICU Nurses Say: Demonstrate Your Concern for Our Patients by Settling a Fair Contract with Safe Staffing
New York, NY—After midnight last night, nurses at both BronxCare and The Brooklyn Hospital Center reached tentative agreements that will improve safe staffing levels and enforcement, increase wages by 7%, 6%, and 5% each year of their three-year contract, and save their healthcare benefits. Nurses at BronxCare had planned to strike starting Monday if an agreement could not be reached.
They join their colleagues at Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center, and NewYork-Presbyterian who have reached tentative agreements. Nurses at all these hospitals are still voting on whether to ratify their contracts. Last night, nurses at Maimonides voted overwhelmingly by 94% to approve a new contract. These agreements represent major improvements in patient care, staffing, and economics for thousands of nurses and create a pattern for hospitals in the outer boroughs where nurses serve mostly low-income Black and brown patients who all deserve the same quality care as upper-income patients in Manhattan.
Approximately 9,500 NYSNA NYC nurses continue to bargain at three other hospitals in advance of the Jan. 9 strike start date. Those hospitals are Montefiore Bronx, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Mount Sinai Morningside and West.
NYSNA NYC private-sector nurses are also bargaining at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where nurses delivered a notice to strike starting Jan. 17 if an agreement cannot be reached. Bargaining resumes at Wyckoff on Monday. Bargaining is still in progress at Interfaith Medical Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, both part of One Brooklyn Health.
Meanwhile, nurses at Mount Sinai spoke out about how their hospital executives need to address the staffing crisis and come to the negotiating table in good faith to deliver a contract that helps nurses deliver quality care to patients. NICU nurses say they often care for up to three critically ill babies at once because of understaffing.
One NICU nurse who preferred to remain anonymous because of fear of retaliation from Mount Sinai said: “The administration was nowhere to be found for months if not years when we have had double the amount of patients that are safe. And now they are trying to blame us.”
Another NICU nurse from Mount Sinai said: “We are ready to strike because we’ve been taken advantage of long enough. The “fragile and vulnerable” babies that management now seems to feel empathy for have been dealing with the repercussions of unsafe staffing for years and management has yet to do anything to resolve this issue.”
NYSNA Director at Large and Labor and Delivery nurse at Mount Sinai, Matt Allen, RN, said: “As a labor and delivery nurse who helps mothers to bring babies into this world, I find it outrageous that Mount Sinai would compromise care for our NICU babies in any way. We already have NICU nurses caring for twice as many sick babies as they should be. We've been sounding the alarm about how that's not safe for our NICU patients, but Mount Sinai has failed to address this crisis. It's unconscionable that Mount Sinai refuses to address unsafe staffing in our NICU and other units of the hospital but is now stirring fears about our NICU babies in contract negotiations. Mount Sinai’s lack of careful planning to care for our most vulnerable patients in the event of a strike, combined with continued guilting and gaslighting of our nurses to encourage them to cross a picket line only deepens our resolve to win enforceable safe staffing ratios. It’s time to come to the table and work with us to protect our most vulnerable patients, instead of fighting against us.”
NYSNA will hold a press briefing today, Jan. 7 from 11:30 a.m.—12:00 p.m. with NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN.
This short briefing will provide an update about what is happening with contract negotiations at hospitals that will strike beginning Jan. 9 unless tentative contract agreements can be reached. There will be opportunities to ask questions.
The briefing will be recorded and distributed to members of the press who register at the link below. You must register below to attend
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The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country's largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.
For more information, visit nysna.org.
