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New York Striking city nurses will resume negotiations with hospital administrators on Thursday in an attempt to end the city’s largest nurses strike in decades.
new york state Nurse The association said its negotiators will meet with their counterparts at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital later Thursday, the fourth day of the strike.
They will meet with officials from other affected hospitals, including mount sinai Friday at Montefiore, although the union said some have not yet agreed to sit down.
Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently, and not all hospitals operated by the three health systems are affected by the strike.
The opposing sides have not met since Sunday, the day before about 15,000 union nurses went on strike.
Hospital Thousands of temporary nurses were hired to keep emergency rooms and other facilities running during the strike.
Nurses say they are seeking to protect their health care benefits, as well as safety contract provisions that address staffing levels and prevent workplace violence.
Sheryl Ostroff, a Mount Sinai nurse, said nurses often bear the brunt of patients’ frustrations, and interactions can quickly turn violent.
“I’ve been scratched on the face, bitten multiple times, kicked in the ribs, left with bruises, spit on, pushed, punched, sexually assaulted – you name it,” she told a union rally on Thursday. “This is unacceptable and we want hospitals to protect us. Why is this such a difficult ask?”
The hospital says the union is seeking “unrealistic” and unaffordable pay increases.
Mount Sinai said the union’s proposal would increase the average annual salary of nurses from about $162,000 to nearly $250,000 over three years, while Montefiore said their average annual salary would rise to $220,000.
The union dismissed the claims as “weird math” but declined to provide rebuttal data.
“We are committed to continuing to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our deep respect for nurses and the critical role they play, while also recognizing the challenging realities of today’s health care environment,” NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital said in a statement Thursday.
Nurses union leaders held a rally Thursday in front of Mount Sinai’s Morningside campus along with elected officials and members of other major city unions.
The hospital, located near Columbia University in upper Manhattan, is among those that have yet to agree to resume contract negotiations, according to the union.
Simone Way, a nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, said she and her fellow nurses have been sounding the alarm for years about appropriate staffing levels, but administrators refused to listen.
“It’s very difficult to provide the level of care our patients deserve,” she told the rally. “There’s only so much a good nurse can do.”
A Mount Sinai spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the rally or the status of contract negotiations.
Health system CEO Brendan Carr said in a video posted earlier Thursday that some union nurses who chose to work rather than join the pickets were harassed and intimidated.
“bullying“Intimidation and threats devalue nurses, undermine our culture, and are inconsistent with our values at Mount Sinai,” he told hospital staff. “You deserve better.”
The union, which filed unfair labor practice charges against Mount Sinai for firing three nurses on the eve of the strike, did not immediately respond.
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