After nearly six weeks on the picket lines, the longest nurses’ strike in New York City history could be coming to an end. Late Thursday night, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) reached a tentative deal with NewYork-Presbyterian hospital, one of the largest hospital networks in the city. If the deal holds, the more than 4,000 nurses still on strike could go back to work as early as next week.
On Jan. 12, nearly 15,000 nurses from three major New York City hospital systems — Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Health System and NewYork-Presbyterian — walked off the job citing concerns about healthcare coverage, staffing issues and workplace safety, among other issues.
After 28 days of striking, on Feb. 9, roughly 10,500 nurses from Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals reached agreements with their employers and have since returned to work. The nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian, however, rejected a proposed contract supported by their union, claiming NYSNA went behind their backs to force a settlement, and stayed on strike.
Now, they may have finally reached a deal.
Although precise details on the tentative agreement were not immediately revealed, according to NYSNA, the union won key concessions from management in this newer proposal, including improved and enforceable safe staffing standards, layoff protections, and raises of more than 12% over the life of the three-year contract. The nurses had rejected the previous deal in part because it didn’t include these layoff protections.
NewYork-Presbyterian also agreed to uphold nurses’ health care benefits, improve security to protect nurses from workplace violence, and protect immigrant patients and nurses from immigration enforcement.
“For a month and a half, through some of the harshest weather this city has seen in years, nurses at NYP showed this city that they won’t make any compromises to patient care,” Nancy Hagans, president of the NYSNA, said in a statement shared with Documented. “They stood in the cold, snow, ice, and wind, along with their union siblings, fighting back management’s attempts to cut corners on care and secured contracts that improve enforceable safe staffing ratios, improve protections from workplace violence, and maintain health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs for frontline nurses.”
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
Angela Karafazli, a spokesperson for NewYork-Presbyterian, expressed the hospital’s support for the tentative agreement.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative settlement with NYSNA, through the mediator, that reflects our tremendous respect for our nurses,” she said in a statement shared with Documented.
Before the agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian can take effect, it must be ratified by NYSNA’s rank-and-file members. Voting will begin Friday at 1 p.m. and end Saturday at 6 p.m.
