Bargaining continues at New York City hospitals to try to prevent looming nurses strike
NEW YORK -- We are less than 24 hours away from when thousands of New York City nurses say they'll walk off the job if their needs aren't met.
If their union and their hospitals can't agree by Monday morning, a strike will take place.
CBS2 learned Saturday two of those hospitals are still at the bargaining table and could reach a tentative deal before Monday. Mount Sinai, however, left the bargaining table Thursday and has been silent with negotiations ever since.
"We don't want to strike," said Matt Allen, who has been a registered nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side for seven years. "Us nurses have been calling out for help from the administration, from our hospital administration, to say, hey, there's too many patients, there's too little nurses."
Allen is one of thousands of nurses at 12 city hospitals with the New York State Nurses Association who have been fighting for what they call fair wages, safe staffing and better health care benefits since September.
"We went through COVID, we risked our lives, we put ourselves out there, we sacrificed many things to take care of the patients in these hospitals ... Where has that respect gone for us?" Allen said.
Their contracts expired Dec. 31, a strike was authorized and a 10-day notice went out to hospitals.
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As of Saturday, Montefiore in the Bronx, Mount Sinai on the Upper East Side and Mount Sinai Morningside and West are the only three that have not yet reached a deal.
"We don't know how many millions of dollars they are willing to spend on replacement nurses and diversion plans for a strike instead of settling contract," NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said.
Mount Sinai is the biggest hospital in the system with 3,600 nurses. They've been preparing for a potential strike this week by moving patients, including babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, to other hospitals, postponing elective surgeries, diverting ambulances and bringing in travel nurses.
"They have 500 vacancies. What are they going to do about that? How do they begin to recruit the nurses competitively?" Allen said. "One nurse is taking care of 10 patients."
Allen says nurses at Mount Sinai are also not making as much money as nursing staff at smaller hospitals in the five boroughs.
Mount Sinai sent CBS2 the following statement Saturday:
"Mount Sinai is dismayed by NYSNA's reckless actions. The union is jeopardizing patients' care, and it's forcing valued Mount Sinai nurses to sacrifice their dedication to patient care and their own livelihoods. We have offered a 19.1% compounded pay raise over three years, which is the same offer other hospital systems in the city have made. Still, NYSNA refuses to back off its plan to strike on Monday, even though it has called off planned strikes at other New York City hospitals. It's not reasonable for NYSNA to ask for a significant wage increase above and beyond these other sites. It's time for NYSNA to meet us back at the bargaining table and continue negotiating in good faith, so that Mount Sinai nurses can continue providing the exceptional patient care for which they're known and respected."
"Our license is on the line, right? If we are taking care of too many patients, we're at greater risk for making a mistake," Allen said.
As of Saturday night, over 8,700 nurses are set to go on strike Monday at 6 a.m.