1 year ago
NEW YORK — Over 7,000 nurses across the city went on strike Monday morning, after their union failed to secure new contract agreements demanding increased staffing levels at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital.
The New York State Nurses Association was unable to agree on a deal during overnight bargaining sessions with Mount Sinai or Montefiore management, union and hospital officials announced.
The hospitals include three Montefiore branches in the Bronx and Mount Sinai's campus on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
“We appreciate solidarity from our patients — but going into the hospital to get the care you need is NOT crossing our strike line,” the union said in a statement early Monday.
“In fact, we invite you to come join us on the strike line after you've gotten the care you need.”
But Mayor Eric Adams warned in a statement late Sunday that the strike could impact patient care.
“If there is a nurses’ strike, hospitals in certain areas may experience impacts to operations, including possible delayed or limited service. We encourage all New Yorkers to call 911 only for emergencies, and be prepared to seek an alternate facility in case their preferred hospital is impacted," Adams said.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management opened an interagency situation room Monday to monitor hospital operations citywide in real time and direct the flow of ambulances.
The union had notified the hospitals on Dec. 30 that they planned to strike in 10 days if they could not reach a deal before then to renew their contracts, which expired at the end of 2022. Since then, it withdrew strike authorizations about a half dozen other city hospitals — including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West — after reaching tentative three-year agreements.
Gov. Kathy Hochul made a last-ditch effort Sunday night to avert a strike by calling on the hospitals and union to enter arbitration. Both hospitals promptly agreed, but the union declined to rescind its strike notice or commit to an arbitration process.
“Nurses don’t want to strike,” a union spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. “Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients."
The union is also demanding a binding way to enforce the increased staffing levels. But Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore management touted their offer of a 19.1 percent compounded wage increase, which nurses at other hospitals had accepted.
Monday’s strike is one of the biggest the country has seen. In September about 15,000 hospital nurses in Minnesota walked off the job after marking two years without a contract, in what their union called the "largest private-sector nurses' strike in U.S. history." Nurses in Hawaii and California also went on strike last year.
English (US) ·