The most important nurses’ strike in New York Metropolis historical past may start on Monday morning if a tentative settlement is not reached between the nurses’ union and hospitals.
Practically 16,000 nurses are threatening to stroll off their jobs on Monday morning, in accordance with the New York State Nursing Affiliation (NYSNA), the union representing the nurses.
Nurses will start the strike as early as 6 a.m. and maintain a press convention at 10 a.m. at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, in accordance with the union.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday in anticipation of a potential strike and appealed to the hospitals and nurses’ union to hammer out a last-minute deal, saying {that a} strike “may jeopardize the lives of hundreds of New Yorkers and sufferers.”
“I am strongly encouraging everybody to remain on the desk, each side, administration and the nurses, till that is resolved,” Hochul mentioned.
A nurse holds an indication throughout a strike at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, January 9, 2023. Greater than 16,000 nurses are threatening to stroll off the job once more if they do not negotiate at new contract.
Bloomberg through Getty Photos
5 privately-run main hospitals in New York Metropolis can be affected by a strike. The hospitals, in accordance with the union, are the wealthiest within the metropolis and embody Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West, Montefiore Einstein, and New York-Presbyterian.
The hospitals are ready to proceed providing care regardless of any pending work interruptions, in accordance with officers, who mentioned sufferers mustn’t keep away from or delay searching for assist for any medical emergencies.
The NYSNA mentioned throughout an video convention replace Sunday morning that there was no motion within the labor talks with the 5 hospitals, affecting greater than 15,000 nurses.
The NYSNA is asking for an settlement that features pay hikes, protected staffing ranges, full well being care protection and pensions, and office protections in opposition to violence.
The nurses’ contract, reached in 2023 after a three-day strike, expired on Dec. 31.
“We proceed to discount in good religion within the hopes of reaching an settlement that’s honest, affordable, and accountable,” a spokesperson for the Mount Sinai Healthcare system mentioned in an announcement on Saturday. “Whereas we all know a strike could be disruptive, we’re ready for a strike that might final an indefinite period of time and have taken each step to finest assist our sufferers and staff within the occasion NYSNA forces our nurses to stroll away from the bedside for the second time in three years.”
“NYSNA management’s reckless and irresponsible calls for totaling $3.6 billion, together with a virtually 40% wage enhance, and taking subject with our affordable measures like rolling out panic buttons for frontline employees within the Emergency Division, clearly put sufferers in danger,” Joe Solmonese, senior vp, Strategic Communications, for Montefiore Einstein hospital, mentioned in an announcement.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 09: Nurses from Mount Sinai Hospital strike outdoors the hospital on Jan. 09, 2023, within the Higher East Facet neighborhood of New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photos)
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photos
“We’re getting ready for what we anticipate may very well be a multi-week strike, and are resolute in devoting no matter sources are essential to protected and seamless look after our group,” the assertion continued.
The deadlock between the NYSNA and administration of the non-public New York Metropolis hospitals continued even because the union introduced tentative settlements final week that diverted strikes at 4 so-called safety-net hospitals within the New York Metropolis space.
Nurses at three main Northwell Well being hospitals on New York’s Lengthy Island reached a tentative contract settlement on Thursday and referred to as off a strike, in accordance with the NYSNA. Nurses at Brooklyn Hospital Heart and Wyckoff Heights Medical Heart, and people who work for the BronxCare Well being System, additionally rescinded strike notices after they reached a tentative contract, the NYSNA mentioned.
“That leaves New York Metropolis’s wealthiest hospitals because the outliers who’ve refused to settle honest contracts that defend sufferers and nurses,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans mentioned in a video assertion on Saturday.
Hagans added, “As a substitute of guaranteeing well being look after nurses, these rich hospitals are pushing to chop well being care advantages for nurses who put their very own well being on the road to look after New Yorkers throughout this historic flu surge, the COVID-19 pandemic and on a regular basis accidents and hospital violence.”
Hagan pointed to a police-involved capturing final week at a Brooklyn hospital as the newest instance of the violence hospital staff face.
On Thursday, a 62-year-old former NYPD officer, allegedly wielding a pointy object, was fatally shot by New York Metropolis law enforcement officials at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. The person, in accordance with police, was shot after he allegedly barricaded himself in a room with an grownup affected person and a hospital safety employee and threatened to harm himself and others.
ABC Information’ Ahmad Hemingway and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
