{"id":227497,"date":"2026-05-11T18:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/227497\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T18:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:05:18","slug":"brooklyn-methodist-nurses-rally-for-fair-contract-safe-staffing-workplace-violence-protections-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/227497\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Methodist nurses rally for fair contract, safe staffing, workplace violence protections \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coinciding with Nurses Week, a few hundred New York State Nurses Association (New York State Nurses Association) nurses rallied outside NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in Park Slope on May 8 alongside elected officials including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Assembly Members Robert Carroll and Jo Anne Simon, and Council Member Shahana Hanif.<\/p>\n

They called for a fair contract with enforceable safe staffing standards to ensure adequate nurse-to-patient ratios, stronger protections against workplace violence, greater respect for nurses\u2019 clinical judgment over artificial intelligence (AI) in patient care, and improved wages and benefits.<\/p>\n

\"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

The union contract for nearly 1,600 nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital expired April 30. The negotiations come on the heels of the largest nurses strike in New York City\u2019s history, when 15,000 nurses stood on the picket line for 41 days and secured a new contract that includes more than 12% salary increases over three years, improved staffing ratios, workplace violence protections, and safeguards against AI.<\/p>\n

Union representatives say hospital management has refused to engage in meaningful negotiations over minimum staffing standards intended to ensure patient and nurse safety, despite ongoing assaults on staff and violent incidents, including a fatal shooting<\/a> on Jan. 8. In that incident, a 62-year-old patient experiencing a mental health crisis barricaded himself with others and threatened people with a sharp object before being shot and killed by NYPD officers.<\/p>\n

Local NYSNA President at NYP Brooklyn Methodist and registered nurse Adlrich Crespino said fewer nurses mean fewer protections and greater risks for patients.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cManagement wants to reimagine, that\u2019s the word they use, to staff and strip down our grid, and not have minimum staffing numbers in our contract,\u201d Crespino said. \u201cThat means we\u2019re not guaranteeing enough frontline nurses and staff in our facility,\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety. \"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

NYSNA local leader Sharonda Green-Carter, a registered nurse who has worked at the hospital for 15 years, said NYP\u2019s proposed changes to the staffing grid would lead to understaffing, heavier workloads, and reduced patient safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for the nurses. You now go home, stressed, burnt out. You\u2019re bringing these problems home. You know, our job isn\u2019t just a job, right?\u201d Green-Carter noted. \u201cWe help people stay alive, and when you don\u2019t have the resources in order to do that, then it goes the other way. And so now you start to feel responsible. You\u2019re anxious; you could be worried about your license. You know, how you provide for your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green-Carter said assaults on nurses, including verbal abuse, physical violence, and sexual assault, have increased at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She added that proposals presented to NYP management include a behavioral emergency response team to prevent and manage mental health crises, weapon detection systems at all entrances, and paid time off for victims of workplace violence, including those affected by the Jan. 8 shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe demand that the NYP management come to the table in good faith and sign our proposal to provide a safe environment for our patients, the community, and our staff,\u201d Green-Carter said.\n<\/p>\n

Her colleague, emergency room nurse Joey Ellerbee, described two recent violent incidents in which a patient spat in his face and another physically assaulted him.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Emergency room nurse Joey Ellerbee said the ER has long been chronically understaffed.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract they say would strengthen protections for both patients and staff.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I have to do is walk away, wipe my face, [and] get myself together while I\u2019m dealing with this. Who\u2019s caring for my other patients? Nobody, I don\u2019t have enough staff to do that,\u201d Ellerbee said, noting that the ER was the only unit at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital without a staffing ratio and was therefore chronically understaffed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is that safe for your family members to come in? Someone\u2019s gonna get hurt, and it\u2019s gonna come back on us,\u201d Ellerbee said.\n<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso urged NYP management to bargain in \u201cgood faith.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nurses are doing double the work. Our nurses are always putting themselves on the front lines to ensure the health of our people,\u201d Reynoso, who is running for the NY-7 congressional district, said. \u201cBut when it\u2019s time for us to show up for you, it\u2019s like everyone disappears. But we\u2019re telling Presbyterian that they\u2019re not going to disappear, and if they can\u2019t see us, they\u2019re going to hear us today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso urged NYP management to bargain in \u201cgood faith.\u201dPhoto by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"NYSNA nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital rallied for a fair contract that improves patient and nurse safety.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Registered nurse Cindy Mei, who has worked at NYP Brooklyn Methodist for 12 years, said she is frustrated by management\u2019s efforts to eliminate existing staffing ratios.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always had safe staffing grid ratios. They\u2019re trying to take all that away. We had legislation during COVID that says that we should have safe staffing grids and units. If [NYP] is doing the right thing, why are you taking away that language? Something doesn\u2019t add up,\u201d Mei told Brooklyn Paper, noting she worked on Jan. 8 but only learned about the incident when colleagues texted her to ask if she was safe. \u201cThey\u2019re talking about Acuity Census, but every month is different. Every season changes, so you need to take that into context.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNurses who are working in that unit are frightened, and they were expected to take a patient within 12 hours after the shooting had happened. That\u2019s unacceptable. It should never happen,\u201d Mei said.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Brooklyn Paper, NewYork-Presbyterian said its goal is to resolve disputes in a way that strengthens care teams and protects patients, adding that nurses are essential members of those teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur shared goal is always to resolve disputes in a way that strengthens care teams, protects patients, and reflects our responsibility to the broader health care system, including safety net hospitals that agreed to the same financial terms negotiated by the private systems,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coinciding with Nurses Week, a few hundred New York State Nurses Association (New York State Nurses Association) nurses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,12,370,44211,23187,44232,63,38979,23188,8005],"class_list":["post-227497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-newyork-presbyterian-brooklyn-methodist-hospital","tag-nurses","tag-nurses-rally","tag-nyc","tag-nysna","tag-nysna-nurses","tag-park-slope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227497","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=227497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}