Mount Sinai Hospital fired three nurses by way of voicemail message on the eve of an enormous ongoing strike, a transfer that quantities to unlawful retaliation and intimidation, the New York State Nurses Affiliation stated on Tuesday.
The three nurses labored within the labor and supply unit, which has skilled “aggressive anti-union exercise,” together with disciplining nurses who attended a union assembly final yr, the union stated.
Lots of of nurses and supporters gathered at a Tuesday afternoon press convention on the Mount Sinai picket line on Madison Avenue to name consideration to the firings.
Two of the fired nurses, Berina Selimovic and Liliana Prestia, issued a joint assertion. “What administration did is pure intimidation,” they stated on Tuesday. “Our unfair terminations have been Mount Sinai’s makes an attempt to scare different nurses and maintain them from becoming a member of the strike line.”
Mount Sinai terminated the nurses as a result of they allegedly interfered with pre-strike emergency preparedness coaching, together with by hiding provides, in line with a press release from the hospital.
In an interview with THE CITY, Selimovic and Prestia stated the hospital’s allegations that they hid provides are false and got here from a journey nurse quickly employed forward of the strike. “Mainly, our managers believed a journey nurse over us,” Selimovic stated.
She and Prestia additionally stated the hospital tried to coerce them to coach the momentary nurses; they refused, which their union contract provides them the best to do, they famous.
“I really feel like they’re simply attempting to scare us. We’re not scared,” Selimovic stated. “We are going to combat this as a result of we’re not within the incorrect.”
Slimovic, Prestia and Jennifer Pitre — the third nurse who was fired — had by no means been formally disciplined by Mount Sinai previous to their termination, in line with a union supply.
NYSNA has already filed a proper cost in opposition to the hospital with the U.S. labor board over what it described as “unlawful” firings, in line with a union supply.
Roughly 15,000 nurses throughout three main personal hospital methods — Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore — walked off the job within the early hours of Monday morning in what the union has described as the biggest strike of its type in New York Metropolis historical past.
The nurses went on strike after the union and administration failed to succeed in agreements on well being care advantages, staffing ranges and office violence protections. Hospital administration say they’ll’t afford to fulfill the nurses’ calls for, however the union claims the hospitals have collectively spent greater than $100 million in pay and lodging for 1000’s of momentary nurses to cowl for individuals who are on strike.
Nancy Hagans, the union president, shot again at administration’s claims that the raises the union are asking for are too excessive, and accused them of misrepresenting the nurses’ calls for on the bargaining desk.
“It’s not true,” she stated in response to a press release from a Montefiore govt claiming that NYSNA was asking for 40% wage will increase. “This isn’t about wages — that is about affected person care and nurses’ security.”
Despite the strike, roughly 20% of Mount Sinai nursing employees confirmed as much as work on Monday, the hospital claims.
This isn’t the primary time the union has accused Mount Sinai of unlawfully retaliating in opposition to union activists. Final month, NYSNA served Mount Sinai with a proper grievance to the federal Nationwide Labor Relations Board after administration disciplined a number of nurses who spoke to the media about an tried taking pictures on the hospital.
