STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Successful negotiations at a Staten Island hospital helped avert a nurses\u2019 strike that swept across the city Monday. <\/p>\n
Last week, management at West Brighton\u2019s Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) agreed to demands from the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) that have stalled negotiations at some of the largest hospitals in the city.<\/p>\n
According to the union, the hospital agreed Thursday to improved safety measures, provide possible financial remedies to nurses who work short-staffed, protect health benefits, and raise base wages.<\/p>\n
While a tentative agreement is pending a vote among RUMC nurses, hospital spokesperson Alex Lutz applauded both sides for the successful negotiations. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur agreement reflects our mutual commitment to supporting our nurses and ensuring safe, high\u2011quality care continues for our patients and their families,” he said. \u201cWe appreciate the professionalism and good\u2011faith efforts on both sides throughout the negotiation process, and we look forward to continuing our work together in caring for our community. We value our nurses and respect the important role they play every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through its agreement with NYSNA, RUMC avoided being part of the largest nursing strike in the city\u2019s history as 15,000 nurses walked off the job Monday at hospitals under the New York Presbyterian\/Columbia, Montefiore Medical Center, and Mount Sinai umbrellas.<\/p>\n
Mount Sinai medical facilities on Staten Island are unaffected by the strike action, according to a hospital spokesperson.<\/p>\n
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, a resident of Tompkinsville and nurse at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, said the intransigence of hospital bosses forced the nurses out on strike Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, greedy hospital executives have decided to put profits above safe patient care and force nurses out on strike when we would rather be at the bedsides of our patients,\u201d she said. \u201cHospital management refuses to address our most important issues\u2014patient and nurse safety. It is shameful that the city\u2019s richest hospitals refuse to continue healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, refuse to staff safely for our patients, and refuse to protect us from workplace violence. It is deeply offensive that they would rather use their billions to fight against their own nurses than settle a fair contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
The striking nurses have won some high-powered political support, including from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Attorney General Letitia James.<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday that her staff has been in contact with both sides and that Department of Health staff will be onsite at affected hospitals to ensure patient safety and continuity of care. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy top priority is protecting patients and ensuring they can access the care they need. At the same time, we must reach an agreement that recognizes the essential work nurses do every day on the front lines of our healthcare system,\u201d she said. \u201cI continue to urge both sides to remain at the table and reach an agreement as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Successful negotiations at a Staten Island hospital helped avert a nurses\u2019 strike that swept…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-97524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97524","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=97524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}