Roughly 15,000 nurses from several New York City hospitals staged a walkout on Monday over contract issues, days after several hospitals on Long Island staved off a strike of their own.
On Monday, nurses on strike were picketing outside NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and Montefiore health system facilities, some holding signs reading: “Stop threatening nurses.”
The affected hospitals, all private and nonprofit, are open after thousands of temporary nurses were brought in to address the labor shortage.
Here’s what to know about the strike.
What is at issue?
The New York State Nurses Association, the same labor union representing the nurses on Long Island, said the dispute in New York City is over several issues, including staffing levels, safety and the use of artificial intelligence. Recently, a man who had a sharp object at a Brooklyn hospital was killed by police after barricading himself inside a room at the medical facility.
The three hospital systems cited some of the union’s expectations and strikes, with Mount Sinai saying it was making “extreme economic demands.”
A registered nurse in the union makes an average of over $160,000 at Montefiore and Mount Sinai, though that does not include benefits.
In 2023, strikes at Mount Sinai and Montefiore over three days resulted in a 19% pay increase across three years.
Is there a nurses’ strike on Long Island?
No, the city dispute comes after Northwell Health and a labor union for nurses at Syosset, Plainview, and Huntington hospitals brokered a tentative deal, which includes an annual raise of about 5% and strengthens staffing, Newsday reported.
What do patients need to know?
All the hospitals where strikes are taking place remain open. Montefiore stated on its website that services at Montefiore Medical Center are not being interrupted by the strike and that patients’ appointments will proceed unless a healthcare provider contacts them.
NewYork-Presbyterian said all its “hospitals are open and accepting patients,” noting that the strike is at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, Allen Hospital and the Ambulatory Care Network.
Mount Sinai said in a statement that it is “ready with 1,400 qualified and specialized nurses – and prepared to continue to provide safe patient care for as long as this strike lasts.”
What do Long Island health systems say?
Health systems on Long Island generally say that the labor dispute in the city has not impacted operations.
Mount Sinai South Nassau nurses are still at work, and the facility has not “seen any significant increase in our patient volume as a result of the” nurses’ strike in New York City, the health system said in a statement sent to Newsday.
Stony Brook Medicine officials said in an email to Newsday, “We have not seen any new or increased numbers of patients due to the strike at other hospitals.”
According to a Northwell Health spokesman, emergency departments at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center typically see higher volumes on Monday, though it’s unclear at the moment whether the numbers are due to the strike, an uptick in flu cases, or a rise after the weekend.
With AP
Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.