NEW YORK – Nurses at private hospitals in New York City are quietly preparing for a possible strike soon, a move that could turn the current tridemic into a full-blown crisis.
The New York State Nurses Association tells our sister network NBC 4 that ballot boxes are being set up at hospitals across the city for members to vote on an authorization to strike before their contracts expire on Dec. 31.
The association has 17,000 members in 12 hospitals subject to this impending deadline; Ballot boxes have already been deployed in facilities covering 14,000. The others will have the opportunity to vote next week.
Nancy Hagans, president of the association, said that in hospitals where votes have already been counted, support for the strike is well above the two-thirds threshold needed.
(While the association is jointly negotiating a common platform for all of its members, the nurses at each of the hospitals have separate contracts, so it’s possible one facility could vote to strike while another couldn’t.)
Voting could end in some hospitals this week, after which the union would have to give the hospital 10 days’ notice of a strike before taking any action. This suggests that strikes could start relatively quickly in the new year.
The union says members are upset by staffing reports at local hospitals, proposed contracts that they believe drastically worsen their health care benefits, and Mayor Eric Adams’ recent decision to forcibly hospitalize psychiatric patients.
Several hospital sources told NBC 4 that the negotiations have not gone well so far and they have genuine concerns that a strike is a real possibility, not just a negotiation threat.
Yolanda Vásquez brings the latest.
The Greater New York Hospital Association was not immediately available to comment on the strike vote. But a hospital potentially facing a strike said it was preparing.
“We respect and appreciate all of our nurse practitioners, who play a central role in providing the exceptional care for which NewYork-Presbyterian is known. We remain confident that union leaders share our dedication to reaching a fair and reasonable contractual settlement and continue to negotiate in good faith,” the hospital said in a statement.
“All necessary preparations are underway to ensure that, in the event of union work disruption in January, our patients at NYP Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NYP Allen Hospital and NYP Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital will continue to receive the same resignation – quality care, without interruptions, in line with our fundamental obligation to the communities we serve”.
All of this comes as the city grapples with what’s being referred to as a tridemic: severe and simultaneous spikes in COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory RSV infections.
The city has already issued a notice (but not a mandate) suggesting people go back to wearing masks indoors.
