NEW YORK (AP) — New York City nurses on strike resumed negotiations with hospital administrators Thursday to try to bring an end to the city's biggest walkout of its kind in decades.
The New York State Nurses Association said its bargaining members began meeting with their counterparts at NewYork-Presbyterian late Thursday, the fourth day of the strike.
They also plan to sit down with officials at other affected hospitals, including those operated by Mount Sinai and Montefiore, on Friday, though the union said some facilities have not yet agreed to resume talks.
Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently, and not every hospital run by the three health care systems is affected by the strike.
The opposing sides haven’t met since Sunday, the day before roughly 15,000 unionized nurses walked off the job.
Hospitals have hired thousands of temporary nurses to keep emergency rooms and other facilities running.
The nurses say they’re seeking to protect their health care benefits, as well as secure contract provisions addressing staffing levels and safety against workplace violence.
Sheryl Ostroff, a Mount Sinai nurse, said nurses often bear the brunt of patients’ frustrations, and interactions can quickly become violent.
“I’ve been scratched in the face. I have been bitten in multiple places. I have been kicked in the ribs where it leaves bruises, spit on, pushed, punched, sexually assaulted — you name it,” she said at a union rally Thursday. “It’s not acceptable, and we want our hospitals to protect us. Why is that a hard ask?”
The hospitals say the unions are seeking “unrealistic” and unaffordable pay raises.
Mount Sinai says the union's proposals would raise the average annual salary of its nurses from roughly $162,000 to nearly $250,000 in three years, while Montefiore says theirs would rise to $220,000.
The union dismissed the claims as “outlandish math,” but declined to provide countering figures.
“We are committed to keep negotiating for a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our deep respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” NewYork-Presbyterian said in a statement Thursday.
Nurses’ union leaders alongside elected officials and members of other major city labor unions Thursday in front of Mount Sinai’s Morningside campus.
The hospital, located near Columbia University in upper Manhattan, is among those that have not yet agreed to resume contract talks, according to the union.
Simone Way, a nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside, said she and her fellow nurses have “sounded the alarm for years” about proper staffing levels, but administrators have refused to listen.
“It is incredibly hard to deliver the level of care our patients deserve,” she said at the rally. “There are limits to what good nurses can do.”
A Mount Sinai spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the rally or the status of contract talks.
Brendan Carr, the health system’s CEO, said in a video that some unionized nurses who have opted to work instead of joining the picket line have been subjected to harassment and intimidation.
“Bullying, intimidating and threatening devalues nurses, undermines our culture, and is not consistent with our values at Mount Sinai,” he said, addressing hospital staff. “You deserve better.”
The union, which has filed a federal complaint against Mount Sinai for on the eve of the strike, dismissed the accusations as “baseless.”
The union also confirmed that its member nurses on Long Island ratified new contracts Thursday with Northwell Health, the state's largest health system.
The deals, which were reached last week and averted strikes at three Long Island hospitals, called for roughly 5% raises in each year of the three-year pact, according to the union.
___
Follow Philip Marcelo at
