New York governor declares a disaster emergency in certain counties due to staffing shortages caused by the strike.
Nearly 15,000 nurses in New York City went out on strike on Monday, causing the state’s governor to declare a disaster emergency in certain counties due to the resulting staffing shortages.
The strike has affected five major hospitals in the city: Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West and NewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan, and Montefiore Einstein in the Bronx.
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) called it the largest nurses strike in New York City history.
NYSNA said in a press release that hospitals forced the strike. Monday was the deadline for hospitals and the state nurses union to agree on a new contract.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Friday in anticipation of the strike amid concerns over staffing shortages and patient care.
The disaster emergency was declared for the counties of the Bronx, Nassau, New York and contiguous counties. The executive order is in effect through Feb. 8.
The union said key issues are: management’s threats to cut healthcare benefits for the frontline nurses; management’s attempt to roll back safe staffing standards that nurses won when they went on strike at two major hospitals three years ago; and management’s refusal to agree to protections from workplace violence, despite a recent active shooter incident at Mount Sinai Hospital and the a violent incident at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
“After months of bargaining, management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections, forcing nearly 15,000 nurses out on the largest nurse strike in New York City history,” the NYSNA said. “Management at the richest hospitals in New York City are threatening to discontinue or radically cut nurses’ health benefits. These cuts would impact not just striking nurses at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside and West and NewYork-Presbyterian, but nearly 27,000 nurses at over 50 hospitals around the state who are enrolled in NYSNA’s health benefit plan.”
WHY THIS MATTERS
New York City’s eight safety-net hospitals and Northwell Health’s three hospitals on Long Island all reached tentative agreements with nurses to avert strikes, the union said, but “New York City’s wealthiest academic hospitals are forcing nurses out on strike and refusing to agree to NYSNA’s proposal to continue nurses’ health benefits.”
The union cited the hospitals’ use of temporary replacement nurses; the use of travel nurses, in which NYSNA said it has filed unfair labor practice charges in response; profits; and executive salaries.
THE LARGER TREND
The strike coincides with a surge in flu cases.
Hochul said in her declaration, “The impacts of understaffing in hospitals and other healthcare facilities is expected to be particularly acute because of record-high numbers of influenza cases and hospitalizations related to influenza in recent weeks.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said: “As our state faces a historic flu surge, our communities are counting on New York’s hospitals for high-quality, reliable frontline care. Meanwhile, hospital management is threatening nurses’ health benefits, rolling back hard-won staffing protections, and doing too little to address workplace violence. I am proud to stand with New York’s nurses in calling on hospitals throughout this city to put patients over profits and ensure safe workplaces for our frontline health care workers.”
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