NYSNA Bronx Midwives Vote To Authorize Strike, Demand Safe Staffing and a Fair Contract Now
For immediate release: May 29, 2025
Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489
NYSNA BRONX MIDWIVES VOTE TO AUTHORIZE STRIKE, DEMAND SAFE STAFFING AND A FAIR CONTRACT NOW
An overwhelming majority of NYSNA midwives employed by PAGNY at NYC Health+Hospitals/Jacobi and North Central Bronx vote to authorize a strike if management does not return to the table and negotiate a fair contract
NYSNA midwives demand in-person bargaining with Dr. Katz
Bronx, N.Y. -- New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) midwives who work for Physician's Group of New York (PAGNY) at NYC Health+Hospitals/Jacobi and North Central Bronx hospitals voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike after their employer failed to make sufficient movement to meet demands for safe staffing. This gives NYSNA leaders the power to give management a 10-day strike notice.
The public hospital midwives who work at Jacobi and North Central Bronx have been fighting for a fair contract for over a year and have been working with an expired contract since June 30, 2023. They are demanding in-person bargaining with a mediator, and they want Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health+Hospitals (H+H) at the table. Midwives want to settle a fair contract that allows them to provide quality care for patients in the Bronx. They have been bargaining with the Physician Affiliate Group of New York (PAGNY), which staffs many of the midwives in the NYC H+H system.
Midwives are essential to providing safe maternal and birthing care in the Bronx, which has some of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in New York state. Recent studies have shown that increasing and integrating midwives into the healthcare system could avert 41% of maternal deaths, 39% of neonatal deaths, and 26% of stillbirths.
NYSNA midwives struggle with high turnover and the pressure to see too many patients in too short a time, which compromises the quality of care and education that midwives can provide to new parents and their babies. Many of their patients are immigrants, speak English as a second language, and have not been treated for preexisting conditions. Midwives are routinely asked to do the job of multiple staff members, are double-booked, rarely get breaks, and have some of the lowest pay in the region.
Midwives are highly skilled clinicians who are difficult to recruit even in the best of times. The midwives at NYC H+H/Jacobi and North Central Bronx provide a much broader scope of care than many peer hospitals. NYSNA midwives have proposed hiring midwives to improve safe staffing and have demanded pay parity. The employer has not agreed to these proposals that will help retain midwives to improve safe patient care.
Roxanne Winston, DNP, MPH, CNM, said, “We are tired of PAGNY dragging its feet at the bargaining table and trying to pass the buck to NYC/Health+Hospitals. We need both of them at the table to be held accountable for our working conditions and patient care conditions. We provide care to mothers and birthing people and address a wide range of health concerns that have been left untreated. The ability to offer safe patient care is a question of equity.”
Kinikia S. Reid, CNM, MSN, RN, said, “My colleagues and I stay here because we love the work that we do. And we are asking for simple things so that we can continue to do so. We want more midwives, so that we can provide better care. We want pay parity with neighboring facilities. And we want respect for the work we do. Midwives see striking as a last resort, but we are willing to do whatever it takes to provide quality care to families in the Bronx.”
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “Bronx midwives and their patients deserve respect. They deserve a fair contract that will keep midwives at the bedside, serving some of the most vulnerable patients in the Bronx and in our city. The public system must invest in midwifery and improving health outcomes for pregnant patients and families in the Bronx.”
NYSNA midwives are bargaining for a fair contract and have made safe staffing and retention a top priority. Midwives spoke out about their contract fight, wrote an editorial explaining their roles, and were interviewed to speak about their fight for safe staffing. At NYC H+H’s annual meeting in the Bronx on May 20, midwives gave passionate testimony about the need for a fair contract for midwives and patients.
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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.