NEW YORK—Short-staffing, fair pay, preserving health care benefits, protection against workplace violence, and putting patients before profits moved 16,000 registered nurses at leading New York City hospitals into an unfair labor practices strike starting yesterday, January 12.
At an outdoor mid-day press conference in front of New York Presbyterian Hospital, one of the dozen hospitals where nurses walked out on strike, New York State Nurses Association President Nancy Hagans, RN, explained that rich hospital CEOs prefer to import strikebreakers rather than pay the RNs what they want and deserve.
“The greedy CEOs put us on strike,” Hagans said. While the nurses suffer, “They keep playing golf.
“We are fighting for safe-staffing,” she added, explaining that three years ago, due to a prior strike against the big hospitals, NYSNA won their agreement to meet safe-staffing standards in intensive care units, neonatal intensive care units, critical care units, and emergency rooms.
NYSNA later lobbied successfully in the state capital of Albany to write such standards into law, Hagans added. But the 12 big hospitals, including nationally known institutions such as New York Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center and Maimonides Medical Center—where Hagans works—have broken both the contract and the law.
Other hospitals where the nurses are striking include BronxCare Health System, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, the Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Interfaith Medical Center/One Brooklyn Health, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center/One Brooklyn Health, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, Columbia University Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center, and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.
“The CEO of Montefiore made $16 million last year,” said Hagans, “The CEO of New York Presbyterian made $26 million. We are not asking for multimillion-dollar salaries, but to be respected in the workplace, to have the pay and benefits we deserve.” She added later that the high CEO pay shows “something’s wrong on the inside” of the health care system.
The contract covering the 16,000 RNs at the hospitals expired on December 31, and ten days before, NYSNA gave the institutions the legally required 10-day notice of its strike authorization vote, which passed by a 97%-3% margin. Talks continued almost around the clock even after that midnight, but the bosses refused to budge, Hagans added.
Instead, the hospital bosses claimed nurses demand 40% of all hospital revenues, a figure NYSNA says is a lie. “All we are asking for is dignity, respect, and fair pay,” Hagans added. “It is a question of who benefits from our hospital system.
The bosses at the big hospitals also want to reduce health care for the nurses, other speakers said, and their demand could jeopardize the NYSNA’s health and welfare fund, which covers 44,000 RNs statewide. Hagans noted smaller safety net hospitals—she singled out Forest Hills Hospital—settled on new contracts with NYSNA. “They were able to put patients before profits,” she said.
“What nurses want is good medical coverage, a good salary, and protections from workplace violence,” Hagans reiterated.
The New York RNs’ situation mirrors the U.S. health care system overall. Low pay and safe-staffing often go hand in hand, speakers at the press conference and National Nurses United, the parent union of NYSNA, say.
The nurses drew strong labor and political support at the freezing outdoor session, led by the new New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, State Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James, and New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento.
“New York City will do everything in our power to ensure the sick and injured of our city receive the quality of care they deserve,” said Mamdani. “And to ensure that the nurses’ demands are satisfied. All parties must return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith. The work we do should be recognized on a day-to-day basis.”
James reminded the crowd that the RNs won the safe-staffing standards in their last contract, three years ago. NYSNA had to strike then to get the hospitals to agree. “They reneged on the deal…and on safe-staffing standards in the state of New York,” James said of the 12 big hospitals.
“They laid off advanced practice nurses in my unit,” said Jennifer Lynch, an 18-year RN at New York-Presbyterian. “It is absolutely unacceptable that New York-Presbyterian can violate the contract while we fight for a fair contract that protects patient safety.
James also put safe-staffing in a national context, noting that on January 1, millions of people nationwide, and tens of thousands in New York state, had to drop health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare when the GOP-enacted and Donald Trump-proposed “Big Beautiful Bill” took effect.
As a result, ACA premiums doubled or more, driving people out of the ACA system and into the most-expensive care, hospital emergency rooms. Though James did not say so, hospitals then pass those costs for “uncompensated care” onto private health insurers, who in turn pass them on to policyholders—the rest of us.
“And ERs rely on safe staffing, which is what the nurses are asking for,” said James.
“The nurses are trying to get a deal and one that protects us and provides safety for our patients,” said Beth Bladdin, a New York-Presbyterian RN. “That’s why we gave them a deadline. That’s why we gave them an extra 10 days” to bargain a new pact…We’re here because our hospital is behind the destruction of the NYSNA health care fund,” which funds health insurance for nurses statewide.
“You are not alone in this fight,” said state AFL-CIO President Cilento. “Upstate, mid-state, downstate, Buffalo to Brooklyn to Long Island, your fight is our fight…These hospitals only exist because of you.”
Noting that smaller New York City hospitals “reached two dozen agreements in the last two weeks” with their nurses, Cilento declared the big institutions “decided to spend tens of millions of dollars to cause a strike they didn’t have to have.”
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