went on strike in 2023,<\/a> and I know that those same strong nurses are here today fighting for our patients, and fighting for safe staffing, and fighting for this community to be a healthier place.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erica alleged the Moses\u2019 emergency room had 145,369 patients in 2024, or 16 patients an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. \u201cAnd we have a very small ER,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking for one of the proposals that we want is a holding area, so patients aren\u2019t waiting 40, 50 hours for a bed upstairs. They\u2019re not in crowded conditions, not waiting in the hallway. It\u2019s very difficult to care for patients when they\u2019re packed in like sardines, and that\u2019s what we want. We want to be able to care for our patients properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In response, when contacted, Montefiore said on Jan. 16, \u201cAt our Moses campus, for patients who are \u2018treat and release,\u2019 meaning they don\u2019t need to be admitted, [the] length of stay in the emergency dept has lessened by nearly half an hour since 2023\u2026..and for patients who need to be admitted to the hospital from the ED at our Moses campus, the time after \u201cadmission\u201d in the emergency dept, where they receive inpatient care to a bed on a clinical floor has been reduced by 35% since 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We asked if Erica thought the hospital was negotiating in good faith. \u201cI don\u2019t believe so,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched the negotiations. I\u2019ve sat in on several of them, and they\u2019re calling us unrealistic and it\u2019s unfair to say the quality care that we want for our patients is unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Given NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) reported that for the week ending Dec. 20, 2025, there were over 32,000 positive cases of the \u2018flu in New York City, and more than 128,000 positive \u2018flu cases in New York City this season, Norwood News asked Erica what the emergency room looked like before she left. \u201cWe\u2019re in the peak season right now,\u201d she said. \u201cThe last time I worked, we had 180 patients in the ER, and it\u2019s a space for 75 or 80, and we had 180 patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In reference to NYSNA\u2019s strike demands, when contacted, Montefiore alleged on Jan. 16 that nurses were demanding a 40% wage increase, \u201cbased on their 10% per year-over-year demand for three years, plus incremental step increases.\u201d The hospital added, \u201cAnd that is just on salary, when you add up all the things they are asking it becomes a cost of $3.6 Billion over the life of the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Montefiore spokesperson said on Jan. 16 that to put that in context, a new, full-time RN coming out of nursing school makes a base salary of $119,423. \u201cBy the end of the proposed 3-year contract, a brand-new, full time RN coming out of nursing school would make $156,000 base salary [approximately],\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The spokesperson went on to say on Jan. 16 that if benefits such as 100% healthcare coverage, life insurance, etc. are included, the cost for a new RN out of nursing school is roughly $170,000. The spokesperson said by the end of the contract, the cost would be around $206,000. He said the exact cost was harder to know as healthcare costs and other costs are likely to go up but it\u2019s unknown by how much.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Montefiore said the average base salary of the average NYSNA RN at Montefiore goes from $165,000 today to $220,000 base salary at the end of the contract, and this does not include any benefits.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson went on to say on Jan. 16, \u201cEvery day this week, we have provided seamless, compassionate care in a healing and safe environment. Our best-in-class security protocol includes, widespread deployment of weapons detection capabilities, paying for round-the-clock armed members of the NYPD, well-trained internal security personnel, and issuing wearable panic buttons to our nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The email extract continued, \u201cI spent time chatting with both patients on my rounds this morning. They\u2019re sitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-103508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-the-bronx","13":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","14":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Strike-3.jpg\")
<\/a>STRIKING NURSES ARE seen outside Montefiore\u2019s Einstein campus located on Eastchester Road in the Morris Park section of The Bronx on Jan. 12, 2026. They are seeking better patient \/ nurse staffing ratios, increased pay, and health care.