Negotiations between the New York State Nurses Affiliation and three hospital programs broke down once more over the weekend, dashing the hopes of a possible decision to a strike involving 15,000 nurses now in its second week.
NYSNA, the nurses’ union, stated it had submitted a revised set of proposals heading into weekend bargaining with Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian, however talks went nowhere. The union is demanding higher staffing, improved on-the-job security and sustaining well being advantages. However the hospitals are dug in on rejecting these calls for as unreasonable. The hospitals have reportedly spent $100 million on short-term nurses, in accordance with a number one commerce group.
Solely Montefiore submitted counterproposals addressing office violence throughout a marathon bargaining session Sunday night, although no significant progress was made, in accordance with union sources. Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian rejected the nurses’ revised proposals with out countering, and no extra bargaining periods have been scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon.
The breakdown was the newest improvement in a strike extra bitter than any in current reminiscence. The nurses’ union has lodged greater than a dozen complaints in opposition to the three hospital programs accusing them of violating U.S. labor regulation, together with by retaliating in opposition to nurses for organizing. At Mount Sinai, the union accused directors of unlawfully disciplining — and in some instances firing — pro-union nurses. Mount Sinai, in flip, has accused placing nurses of “bullying” journey nurses, a cost the union denies.
Michelle Gonzalez, an oncology nurse who sits on the Montefiore bargaining committee, stated that security is the union’s high precedence, and she or he described how the lack of beds has led to overworked nurses tending to sufferers in hallways.
“There’s a specific amount of ethical duress that comes from coping with these situations for each the affected person and for the supplier,” stated Gonzalez. “And that’s why we can not settle for from them this concept that there’s nothing that [the hospital] can do.”
The strike, which the union claims is the biggest of its variety in New York Metropolis historical past, has already eclipsed the length of a smaller strike in 2023 that resulted in improved nurse-to-patient staffing enforcement mechanisms the hospitals at the moment are making an attempt to roll again.
Pickets continued at 9 hospital amenities by means of the lengthy weekend as real-feel temperatures plunged to the only digits. On Tuesday morning, nurses at Mount Sinai West have been joined by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in his second go to to the NYSNA picket line, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), each of whom urged hospital representatives to come back again to the bargaining desk.
“The individuals of New York Metropolis, the individuals of Vermont, the individuals of America, love and respect our nurses. And in the present day we are saying to these hospitals: Sit down and negotiate an honest contract,” Sanders stated, prompting chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” from the scores of nurses and supporters in attendance.
Earlier Tuesday morning, NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson Angela Karafazli stated the hospital was “working by means of the mediator” to schedule the following bargaining session. Mount Sinai CEO Brendan Carr stated in a discover to employees on Monday that the hospital “prolonged our plans to run the Well being System with out the assist of the nurses NYSNA management has satisfied to strike.”
Montefiore strategic communications govt Joe Solmonese stated the union’s calls for have been “reckless and harmful.”
“Till they’ll again away from their reckless and harmful $3.6 billion calls for, progress total is not going to be doable,” he stated. “Within the meantime, we proceed to offer the world-class care our communities deserve.”
Nurses who spoke with THE CITY stated that hospital administration has been emboldened by what they described because the Trump administration’s anti-worker agenda to reverse the union’s earlier victories. The union, the nurses stated, was extra decided than ever to carry the road.
“It’s not nearly nurses: That is to attempt to educate the working class that we’re not in energy, that who has energy is the 1% — the CEOs and the wealthy,” Gonzalez, the Montefiore nurse, stated. “We’ve had this erosion of our contract that they’re attempting to do proper now as a result of they really feel empowered and emboldened, in my view, by the Trump administration.”
“In the event that they achieve breaking our energy and what we’re preventing for right here in New York, taking away healthcare for nurses, they’re going to do that in each different unit, and in each different state,” stated an OB-GYN nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital who declined to present her identify. “So this combat is about extra than simply us.”
