New York City nurses returned to the picket lines again Friday after contract talks with hospital administrators failed to produce any agreements.
After days of stalled negotiations, nurses met Thursday with representatives from Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian in an effort to end the city’s largest nursing walkout in decades.
The New York State Nurses Association said Friday the three hospital systems were “still demanding cuts to nurses’ healthcare benefits,” which the union says would affect not only nurses at the struck hospitals but “44,000 nurses and their families at over 50 hospitals around the state who are enrolled in NYSNA’s health benefit plan.”
What You Need To Know
New York City nurses at three hospital systems returned to picket lines Friday after talks failed to yield agreements
The union says hospitals are still seeking cuts to health benefits, affecting tens of thousands statewide
About 15,000 nurses have been on strike since Jan. 12 as both sides remain far apart
“As nurses have said from the beginning, and as we’ve shown at the bargaining table, we are willing to negotiate on wages, but we are not willing to cut corners on patient and nurse safety,” the union said. “Nurses remain ready to bargain in good faith every day until we settle fair contracts that protect patients and nurses.”
A Montefiore spokesperson said negotiations were ongoing Friday.
“We are back at the bargaining table today, just as we were all day yesterday,” the spokesperson said. “We have made some progress but there is still distance to go.”
About 15,000 nurses walked off the job Jan. 12, prompting hospitals to bring in thousands of temporary workers to keep operations running.
Last week, the union held one bargaining session with each of the three hospital systems, but the hourslong meetings ended with little progress and no plans for further talks.
Each affected hospital is negotiating independently, as not every facility run by the three systems is involved. Other private hospital systems reached tentative agreements with the union, averting walkouts, and city-run public hospitals are not part of the negotiations.
The renewed talks came at the urging of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, both Democrats, according to the union. Mamdani spoke Tuesday at a union rally outside Mount Sinai’s Upper West Side hospital alongside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Nurses say they are seeking to protect health care benefits and secure contract provisions addressing staffing levels and workplace violence. Hospital officials say the union is seeking “unrealistic” and unaffordable pay raises and maintain they are not proposing cuts to nurses’ health benefits.