the domestic policy law President Trump signed in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThe health care system is under siege financially,\u201d Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said. \u201cThe demands of the union are so outrageous\u201d that there was no way hospitals could give in to them, he said.<\/p>\n
Lucia Lee, a spokeswoman for Mount Sinai, said that nurses at the hospital make on average $162,000 \u2014 and that the union\u2019s salary demands would increase that to $275,000 over three years. At Montefiore, the union\u2019s demands would eventually lift the nurses\u2019 average base salary from about $165,000 to $220,000, according to figures provided by the hospital.<\/p>\n
Officials with the New York State Nurses Association disputed the hospital\u2019s claims. Union officials said that Mount Sinai and the other hospitals were offering only about $4,500 more per nurse, while declining to fund health care benefits to the same extent as before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile NewYork-Presbyterian, Montefiore and Mount Sinai \u2014 three of New York City\u2019s wealthiest private hospitals \u2014 are claiming they can\u2019t afford to settle a fair union contract that keeps nurses and patients safe, they likely have plenty of cash on hand to use to fight their own workers,\u201d Ms. Hagans, the union president, said.<\/p>\n
Hagans isn\u2019t remotely off-base with that assessment. Officials at the Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group, revealed that NewYork-Presbyterian spent $60 million to hire contingency nurses in preparation for the strike. I don\u2019t know about you, but spending $60 million to argue against paying your workers is kind of a bad look in my opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several politicians and officials in New York have come out in support of the nurses. \u201cThere is no shortage of wealth in the health care industry,\u201d New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CEO of Montefiore made more than $16 million last year. The CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian made $26 million. But too many nurses can\u2019t make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Attorney General Letitia James has also come out in support of the striking nurses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs our state faces a historic flu surge, our communities are counting on New York\u2019s hospitals for high-quality, reliable frontline care,\u201d James said. \u201cMeanwhile, hospital management is threatening nurses\u2019 health benefits, rolling back hard-won staffing protections, and doing too little to address workplace violence. I am proud to stand with New York\u2019s nurses in calling on hospitals throughout this city to put patients over profits and ensure safe workplaces for our frontline health care workers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Friday in anticipation of the strike and has urged both parties to remain at the negotiating table. \u201cI\u2019m strongly encouraging everyone to stay at the table, both sides, management and the nurses, until this is resolved,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s insane that the CEO\u2019s of these hospitals are straight-up multimillionaires but are arguing with a straight face that they don\u2019t have the money to pay their workers. Their wealth is built on the backs of the nurses who put their health and safety on the line every day. The least they can do is pay them a decent wage, provide them with solid health care, and ensure that the hospitals have reasonable staffing levels. If you pay people what they\u2019re worth, they won\u2019t go on strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s crazy how that works.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SEE ALSO:<\/p>\n
Howard University Hospital Strike Is HBCU\u2019s Latest Protest<\/a><\/p>\nThe Real Reason Why Chicago Teachers Are Striking<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nurses demand fair pay, healthcare, and safe staffing levels, but hospitals plead poverty despite executives’ exorbitant pay Politicians…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45587,7771,23185,30735,9,24,55,54,37502,44240,56,38979,82],"class_list":["post-98981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-greater-new-york-hospital-association","tag-montefiore","tag-mount-sinai","tag-mount-sinai-morningside","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-state-nurses-association","tag-newyork-presbyterian","tag-ny","tag-nysna","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98981","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=98981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Source: Michael M. Santiago \/ Getty<\/p>\n