The longest nurses’ strike in the city’s history is going to be even longer.
In a surprising turn, striking nurses from NewYork-Presbyterian overwhelmingly rejected a deal struck by their own union, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).
On Wednesday evening, more than 70% of the nearly 4,200 striking nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian voted against a tentative contract brokered by their union that would have brought the nurses back to work after 31 days on strike.
Just two days earlier, nurses at the other two striking hospitals, Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Health System, voted in favor of similar agreements that would have improved safe staffing ratios, protections against workplace violence, and a salary increase of more than 12% over a new three-year contract.
According to the hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian’s proposal included the same wage increases as at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Health System, preserved the pension plan, maintained nurses’ health benefits, and increased staffing levels by adding 65 additional staff over three years.
“We believe the proposal, which includes compromises, is fair and reasonable and reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role that they play,” Angela Karafazli, Senior Director of Media and Public Relations for NewYork-Presbyterian, said in a statement. “As stated, this proposal was presented by the mediators, who are some of the most respected and experienced neutral negotiators, after months of bargaining.”
However, NewYork-Presbyterian’s 12-member nurse executive bargaining committee argued that the deal did not go far enough in protecting nurses from layoffs and elected to continue the bargaining process.
Nurse Annelise MacLeod, a member of the executive bargaining committee, told Documented that when NewYork-Presbyterian cut its entire workforce by 2% last May, about 40 union nurses and nurse practitioners were laid off as a result. They were replaced with non-union workers, she claimed. MacLeod said the proposed contract did not include language that would have protected them from layoffs.
“So we have a history of them shutting down services and then replacing them with non-union workers,” she said. “Job security was a big thing for us, and it’s a concern that they’ll continue to try to lay off union workers and continue trying to union-bust throughout this contract if we don’t have any job security language.”
Per NYSNA’s internal policies, each of the three hospitals on strike have separate and autonomous bargaining committee made up of nurses from each hospital. Negotiations between the nurses and NewYork-Presbyterian stalled, however.
On Tuesday night, with negotiations at an impasse, NYSNA abruptly announced that it had reached an agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian. The news came as a shock to the nurses’ negotiation committee, who say they were only given a 10-minute heads up before the union sent an email to members asking them to vote on the new contract.
“They stabbed us in the back,” said MacLeod.
By circumnavigating the bargaining committee, MacLeod argues, the union violated its own bylaws.
“This was just an overt betrayal of our trust and a violation of our bargaining unit rules to just completely go over the head of the elected nurses representing the nurses here at NewYork-Presbyterian,” she said. “We had rejected the proposal.”
In response, the rank and file members began to quickly organize a counteroffensive. As first reported in THE CITY, several dozen nurses marched on NYSNA’s midtown headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. They delivered a petition signed by over 1,500 nurses demanding that a formal investigation be conducted.
In a statement shared with Documented, NYSNA President Nancy Hagans defended the union’s actions.
“We believe all striking nurses deserve to see the details of their tentative agreements and get the opportunity to vote on whether to ratify a new contract,” she said in a statement made on Tuesday. “As a democratic, member-led union that responds to its members, we are moving forward with a vote on tentative contracts at all four [NewYork-Presbyterian] hospitals with the goal of returning all nurses to work as soon as possible.”
The union did not share further comment on the outcome of the vote.
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
It’s not entirely clear why NYSNA pushed to settle the strike while the bargaining committee was still negotiating.
“My perception is really they just want this to be over,” said MacLeod. “They, I think, much like New York Presbyterian, underestimate the strength of the nurses at this hospital.”
Nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian will continue to be on strike for the foreseeable future, but further bargaining sessions have yet to be scheduled.
