For Immediate Release: May 30
Contact: Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org |646-853-4489
Eliza M. Bates | eliza.bates@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
More than 1,000 Brooklyn Nurses Ready to Strike on June 12 unless tentative agreement is reached
Nurses Continue to Push Back Against Staffing Cuts and Demand Staffing Improvements to Deliver Quality Care in Brooklyn
Brooklyn, N.Y.— After long days of negotiations on Friday, May 26 and Memorial Day with little progress made, NYSNA nurses delivered a strike notice to administrators at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital late yesterday evening. NYSNA will continue to be available to bargain non-stop between now and June 12 in the hopes of reaching an agreement before an open-ended strike begins.
The strike notice gives NYP-Brooklyn Methodist time to plan care for patients while nurses are on strike. But the best way for management to protect patients is to listen to nurses and settle a fair contract that protects patient care before June 12.
The contract for nurses at NYP-Brooklyn Methodist ended on April 30, 2023, and bargaining has been going on for months. Last week, with nearly all members participating in the strike vote, 99.6% of nurses voted yes to authorize a strike.
NYSNA member leader Sharonda Green-Carter, RN said: “We don’t want to go on strike, but we will if NYP gives us no other option. Nurses refuse to accept staffing cuts or compromise the care for our Brooklyn community in any way. We hope that NYP comes back to the table in good faith to deliver a contract with safe staffing that respects nurses and our patients.”
Nurses have been speaking out for safe staffing throughout negotiations. On May 4, hundreds of nurses and their labor, community and elected official allies picketed outside the hospital to protest NYP-Brooklyn Methodist’s proposals to cut staffing levels instead of improving staffing to protect quality care. Many small businesses across Park Slope, Brooklyn, also showed solidarity with NYSNA nurses fighting for a fair contract by putting up “Listen to the Nurses” posters in their storefronts.
Since the informational picket, safe staffing has remained the sticking point in negotiations. Management has also interfered with nurses’ union rights, directed RNs to remove union stickers regarding safe staffing and our collective bargaining demands, and required management approval for union activity.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said: “As a long-time nurse at neighboring Maimonides Medical Center, I am outraged that NYP-Brooklyn Methodist has pushed nurses to the brink of a strike. If they listened to the nurses and committed to staff their facility safely, we would not be in this situation. All 42,000 members of NYSNA are in solidarity with our union siblings as they fight for a fair contract.”
Last January, the NYSNA nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian’s flagship hospital in Manhattan reached a three-year contract agreement that increased nurse staffing, improved staffing standards and enforcement, preserved healthcare and other benefits, and increased salaries each year of the contract by 7%, 6 %, and 5%. The hospital was the first of 12 New York City private sector hospitals whose contracts expired on December 31, 2022 that reached similar contract agreements with NYSNA.
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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.
