NYC nurses strike continues into third day as talks resume with Mount Sinai, Montefiore

Nurses picketed outside two major New York hospitals for the third day in a row on Wednesday as their union and management of both hospitals resumed negotiations to reach an agreement that would end the strike.

Since the strike began Monday, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan have lost a total of more than 7,000 union nurses who voted two weeks ago to quit their jobs to secure higher wages and working conditions. and staffing levels.

The stalemate between the New York State Nurses Association and hospital leadership appears to have been most acutely felt at Mount Sinai, which broke off negotiations earlier this week.

Nurses shout slogans and hold banners during a nurses' strike outside Mount Sinai Hospital on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, in New York City.

But informal talks between Mount Sinai and the nurses’ union resumed late Tuesday and are expected to continue Wednesday morning, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Daily News. Official talks between the union and Montefiore continued until 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday and resumed later that day at 11:00 a.m., sources said.

According to the union, the stumbling block at Mount Sinai is still the ratio of nurses to patients. Staffing in Montefiore also remains a challenge, as is staffing there.

However, the animosity between the union and hospital management goes beyond that, and it has to do with staffing shortages during the darkest days of COVID-19.

“We were here to take care of patients,” union president Nancy Hagans said Wednesday near Montefiore. “We were the last ones to hold their hands. We were the last ones to FaceTime their families so they could say goodbye. And today we are told that our relationship is too tough. Our patients deserve the best. Patients in the Bronx deserve better.”

The intensification of the ongoing strikes in Montefiore and Mount Sinai began two weeks ago when nurses delivered notices of a 10-day strike to eight hospitals in five districts. Most of them, including the New York-Presbyterian, Maimonides Medical Center, University of Richmond Medical Center, BronxCare, Flushing Hospital, and Mount Sinai’s Morningside and West facilities, have reached agreements with the union.

Nurses at two other Brooklyn hospitals – Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and Brooklyn Hospital Center – also voted to sanction the strike. The nurses at Wyckoff have notified management of a 12-day strike, meaning they could leave as early as next Tuesday. The management of the Brooklyn Hospital Center and the New York State Nurses Association have reached a preliminary agreement to avert the threat of a strike.

Mount Sinai says part of the staffing challenge it is facing is a shortage of nurses whose work lists have been depleted due to COVID. The Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents hospitals across the region, also cited this as a factor.

“The whole world is experiencing a serious shortage of nurses,” said hospital association spokesman Brian Conway. “It is irresponsible to talk about staffing problems in hospitals without acknowledging the huge problems that hospitals face, especially the shortage of nurses when they are trying to hire and retain their nurses.”

Montefiore denounced the strike as “unnecessary” and said he offered to increase his emergency department staff by adding 115 registered nurses, as well as 34 nurses in other departments.

The hospital also said it intends to phase out “all patient placement in corridors, except in circumstances where the facility is authorized to do so” in accordance with state regulations.

Nurses working in Montefiore said on Wednesday that this is not enough.

“All patients deserve VIP treatment, not just administrators when they come in with their family members,” Michelle Gonzalez, an intensive care unit nurse in Montefiore, said at a rally outside the hospital on Wednesday. “There is something very wrong with what is happening here. If VIP patients need VIP service, all patients need VIP service.

“Throughout this process, we were called unprofessional. We’ve been called disgusting even though we’re only fighting to put an end to the practices we find disgusting here, such as washing patients in the middle of the hallway. It’s disgusting,” she continued. “We are not disgusted by the fact that we address the fact that it exists. What’s disgusting is that patients have no dignity when they’re in the hallway.”

While many patients support the strike, they also say the deadlocked contract negotiations are damaging.

Leah Stern, 19, who commutes daily from New Rochelle in Westchester County to the Montefiore campus in Moses in the Bronx for outpatient treatment, says there are now far fewer nurses there to help her.

“The last few days have been a little crazy,” she said. “Usually there are 14 nurses in my department, but now there are three.”

A supporter stands through the sunroof of a passing car in front of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City's Manhattan borough on Monday, January 9, 2023, as nurses go on strike after a breakdown in negotiations with the hospital hours earlier.

Despite this, striking nurses such as Gonzalez received support from elected officials and union leaders.

Both Mayor Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) were vocal in their support for the striking nurses, and several council members and state lawmakers attended Wednesday’s rally near Montefiore.

Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, offered a simple message to striking workers outside of Montefiore.

“You are not alone in this struggle,” he said. “I swear to you, we will be with you as long as it takes you to do this.”

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