What you should know
- About 3,500 nurses from Montefiore and 3,625 nurses from Mount Sinai went on strike at 6 a.m. Monday.
- Progress is being made in negotiations at Montefiore, a union official said on Tuesday, and Mount Sinai hopes a deal approved by its sister campuses will soon bring those on the main campus back to the negotiating table, a spokesman said on Monday.
- The picket nurses have stressed that staffing levels are a bigger issue than pay. New York City nurses were hailed as heroes in the spring of 2020, when the city was an epicenter of COVID-19 deaths, and say they are suffering from burnout due to understaffing.
NEW YORK – A nurses’ strike that disrupted patient care at two of New York City’s largest hospitals entered its third day Wednesday, and a union official said progress was being made toward a possible deal on a of the institutions while a spokesman for the others expressed the hope that an agreement could arrive soon.
About 7,100 nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan left work at 6 a.m. on Monday to go on strike after no agreement on a new contract could be reached during lengthy negotiations over the weekend. Both facilities had to postpone or cancel elective surgeries, reroute ambulances, and assign experienced nursing executives to help fill care gaps with so many critical frontline staff joining the demonstrations.
Montefiore and Mount Sinai are the latest in a group of hospitals with simultaneously expiring nursing contracts.
The union, the New York State Nurses Association, initially warned it would strike them all, but other hospitals grappled with the strike deadline approaching. These agreements provide for increases of 7%, 6% and 5% respectively over the next three years.
More than 70 percent of nurses at other Mount Sinai hospitals, including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, voted to accept a deal reached last weekend, which spokeswoman Lucia Lee said Wednesday she hoped will motivate the hospital staff at your main hospital to reach a resolution.
“More than 70 percent of nurses in Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West voted to ratify an employment agreement that puts nurses and patients first,” she said. “The overwhelming support for this contract gives us hope that a resolution is near at Mount Sinai Hospital and that the union will negotiate in good faith to end this strike.”
Nurses at the main Mount Sinai facility argued that colleagues at Morningside and Mount Sinai West had better pay differentials and better starting conditions.
Meanwhile, progress was being made toward an agreement in Montefiore, Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, a union official and Bronx hospital system nurse, said Tuesday.
Picketing out, the nurses said they had to go on strike because chronic understaffing forces them to treat too many patients.
“Now we are tired, overwhelmed. The nurses are exhausted,” said Saffie Sesay, an emergency room nurse at the hospital. “It’s just getting worse.”
The New York State Nurses Association said before the strike, and after it began, that no one wanted to leave, but said private non-profit hospitals had forced action. Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, union says staff shortages remain a chronic problem and wages aren’t high enough to compensate
The striking nurses have stressed that staffing levels are a bigger issue than pay. New York City nurses were hailed as heroes in the spring of 2020, when the city was the epicenter of COVID-19 deaths. Now, they say they are exhausted by the low staffing levels that have been a problem for years.
“Remember, even before (the) pandemic, we were already understaffed,” said Mount Sinai nurse Nagie Pamphil. She said nurses in her unit would now have to care for twice as many patients as they can safely handle.
“It’s impossible,” he said.
Dr. Dayana Jiménez provides us with valuable advice and resources focused on the Hispanic community. Video produced by Sandra Escallón.
Montefiore said he has agreed to add 170 more nurses. The Mount Sinai administration said the union’s focus on the nurse-patient relationship “ignores the progress we’ve made in attracting and hiring more new nurses, despite the global shortage of health care workers plaguing hospitals across the country.” “.
A relative of a Montefiore patient said Tuesday’s staff seemed a little short.
“There didn’t seem to be enough people” at work, said Shivie Tahal, whose daughter had to wait longer than usual for an appointment. She said the waiting room seemed busier.
Tahal’s husband is a nurse in another hospital but he is not on strike. He hoped the dispute would “resolve what’s best for both sides: the patients and the nurses.”
Barbara Roman said her 10-year-old daughter was hospitalized Monday afternoon with breathing problems. She said there seemed to be enough people to take care of her child.
“If there’s a little less staff in the room, it doesn’t matter, as long as you get the care you need,” Roman said.
Associated Press writer Bobby Caina Calvan contributed to this article.
