NYSNA nurses deliver ‘10-day strike notices’ to a dozen hospitals

Nurses stage a strike in front of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

CITYWIDE — IN WHAT COULD BE the biggest nurses’ strike in New York City history, the New York State Nurses Association on Friday delivered 10-day strike notices to a dozen private sector hospitals across the city — five of them in Brooklyn — two days after their contract expired on Dec. 31. These notices give hospital management ten days to reach a contract with the roughly 20,000 NYSNA nurses. If not, the nurses could go on strike Jan. 12.

According to NYSNA, sticking points in negotiations include management’s failure to guarantee nurses’ healthcare benefits, management’s attempt to roll back safe staffing standards that nurses won three years ago, and management’s refusal to agree to protections from workplace violence. In mid-December, more than 100 city and state elected leaders, including then-Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, backed the nurses in a public letter.

A spokesperson for Maimonides Medical Center told the Brooklyn Eagle, “We remain hopeful that we can avoid a strike and negotiate a fair contract that rewards nurses for their important work and recognizes the increasingly difficult financial challenges that we and other hospitals face. Patients are our top priority, and we are preparing to hire contract nurses and re-deploy staff to ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality care to our patients.”

The 12 hospitals include: BronxCare Health System, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Interfaith Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health, Maimonides Medical Center, Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.

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