Two New York City hospitals have reached a tentative agreement with thousands of striking nurses that ends the protest, the nurses union announced Thursday.
The nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association, went on strike early Monday after negotiations with management ran aground at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx. Each of them has more than 1,000 beds and 3,500 or more unionized nurses.
The union has stressed staffing levels as a key concern, noting that nurses who worked during the grueling peak of the coronavirus pandemic are stretched too thin because many jobs are vacant. Nurses say they have had to work overtime, see twice as many patients as they should, and skip meals and even bathroom breaks.
IT MAY INTEREST YOU:
“Thanks to our unity and our all-out stakes, we’ve gotten safe staffing ratios in place at both Montefiore and Mount Sinai, where nurses went on strike to care for patients,” he said. in a statement the president of NYSNA, Nancy Hagans.
“Today we can return to work with our heads held high, knowing that our victory means safer care for our patients and more sustainable jobs for our profession,” Hagans added.
The privately owned, non-profit hospitals say they have been battling a widespread nursing shortage, exacerbated by the pandemic.
“Our negotiating team has been working tirelessly with NYSNA leadership to reach an agreement,” Montefiore said in a statement. “From the beginning, we came to the table committed to negotiating in good faith and addressing the issues that were top of mind for our nursing staff.”
The hospital said it focused on ensuring nurses had “the best possible work environment, with significant pay and benefits improvements” through the agreement with the union.
The union posted a message on social media announcing what it calls a ‘historic victory’.
“BREAKING: The New York City nurses’ strike ended this morning with a historic victory by reaching tentative agreements with @MontefioreNYC and @MountSinaiNYC Hospital. Nurses won concrete safe and enforceable staffing ratios in both agreements and They will return to work,” the message read.
BREAKING: NYC nurses strike to end this morning in historic victory as tentative deals were reached with both @MontefioreNYC and @MountSinaiNYC Hospital. Nurses won concrete enforceable safe staffing ratios in both deals and will be back on the job.
🔗: https://t.co/oD5QvxBQIy pic.twitter.com/mdG61OieZ6
— NYSNA (@nynurses) January 12, 2023
“We know that this strike has affected everyone, not just our nurses, and we are committed to reaching a solution as soon as possible to minimize disruption to patient care,” the hospital said.
Other private hospitals in the city reached agreements with the union as the deadline for the strike approached. The agreements included 19% increases over three years.
Mount Sinai and Montefiore said before the strike that they had offered the same wage increases.
