(NEW YORK CITY) – Just before the start of New York City’s largest-ever Nurses Strike, Mount Sinai terminated three Nurses via voicemail for “interfering with patient safety.” In the days after the firings were made public the Nurses and their Union, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), called that a false accusation and criticized the firings as “unlawful.”
Nearly 15,000 NYSNA Members went on Strike at Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian, three major private New York City hospital systems, on January 12th to demand staffing standards for Nurses, workplace violence protections and health care benefits for Nurses.
Ahead of the Strike, Mount Sinai management claims, three Union Nurses in the Labor and Delivery Unit deliberately sabotaged the Hospital’s emergency preparedness drills, including hiding supplies from Agency Nurses in training who were meant to work during the Strike.
The Hospital said the Nurses carried out “completely unacceptable behavior,” adding the Union Nurses locked “critical supplies” designed to care for newborns in conference rooms “where they did not belong.”
The Hospital said the Nurses “lied about their involvement,” but that reviewing security footage of the incident “easily refuted” the Nurses’ claims.
Hospital leadership said it will report the trio to the Office of Professional Discipline.
However, two of the fired Nurses – Berina Selimovic and Liliana Prestia, told a different story at a NYSNA press conference held outside Mount Sinai on January 13th, calling Hospital leadership’s claims false accusations and a “pure act of intimidation.”
To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: NYSNA slams hospital’s firing of three nurses just before strike – The Chief
Photo Courtesy Of NYSNA’s Facebook Page.