The biggest 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.
Almost 16,000 nurses are threatening to stroll off their jobs on Monday morning, in line 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 line with the union.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday in anticipation of a attainable 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 1000’s of New Yorkers and sufferers.”
“I am strongly encouraging everybody to remain on the desk, either side, administration and the nurses, till that is resolved,” Hochul stated.
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 by way of Getty Pictures
5 privately-run main hospitals in New York Metropolis can be affected by a strike. The hospitals, in line with the union, are the wealthiest within the metropolis and embrace 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 line with officers, who stated sufferers mustn’t keep away from or delay in search of assist for any medical emergencies.
The NYSNA stated 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, secure staffing ranges, full well being care protection and pensions, and office protections towards 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 stated in a press release 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 greatest help our sufferers and workers 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 challenge with our affordable measures like rolling out panic buttons for frontline workers within the Emergency Division, clearly put sufferers in danger,” Joe Solmonese, senior vp, Strategic Communications, for Montefiore Einstein hospital, stated in a press release.
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. (Picture by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures)
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
“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 secure and seamless look after our neighborhood,” 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, according to the NYSNA. Nurses at Brooklyn Hospital Middle and Wyckoff Heights Medical Middle, and those that work for the BronxCare Well being System, additionally rescinded strike notices after they reached a tentative contract, the NYSNA stated.
“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 stated in a video assertion on Saturday.
Hagans added, “As an alternative 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 shooting final week at a Brooklyn hospital as the newest instance of the violence hospital employees 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 line 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.
