(FamilyConservationPAC.com) – After discussions stalled over the weekend, more than 7,000 unionized nurses quit their jobs on Monday at two of the biggest hospitals in New York City.
According to reports, the strike is being participated in by around 3,600 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and 3,500 nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
The strike compelled the two private nonprofit hospitals to adjust their services, including rerouting ambulances, delaying non-emergency surgeries, transferring patients, hiring temporary staff, and designating managers with nursing backgrounds to fill in for the absent workers.
Mount Sinai and Montefiore could not negotiate agreements with the union representing the New York State Nurses Association employees before the deadline on Sunday, in contrast to other hospitals in the city.
7,000 Nurses at 2 NYC Hospitals Go on Strike pic.twitter.com/fAPjbjutJf
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 10, 2023
The organization claims that it is striking for “fair contracts” and against understaffed wards that force nurses on duty to care for an excessive number of patients.
Nurses Are Reluctant To Strike
On Sunday, the New York State Nurses Association said,
“bosses have forced us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our suggestions to solve the dire situation of hazardous staffing that damages our patients.”
The union and the two hospitals should engage in binding arbitration, according to New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D), “so that all parties can rapidly achieve a settlement.”
However, the New York State Nurses Association wasn’t pleased with Hochul’s response.
The union urged the governor, saying, “We call on Governor Hochul to join us in putting patients before profits and to implement current nurse staffing requirements.”
Gov. Hochul should respect our legally protected labor and collective bargaining rights and pay attention to frontline COVID nursing heroes.”
The union’s talking point about staffing shortages was refuted by a Mount Sinai spokeswoman, who noted that there is a “global lack of healthcare professionals that is hitting hospitals throughout the nation” and that they are disregarding the fact that they have been striving to employ additional nurses.
Additionally, the Mount Sinai spokesperson said that nurses at the facility were given the “same salary agreement” that had been approved before the deadline on Sunday by the two other hospitals in the network, including those at Morningside/West and the East Side site.
The hospital Montefiore just issued the following statement addressing its stance in negotiations with the nurses’ union:
Despite Montefiore’s offer of a 19.1% compounded wage increase—the same offer agreed to at the wealthiest of our peer institutions—and a commitment to create over 170 new nursing positions, and despite a call from Governor Hochul for arbitration, The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) leadership has decided to walk away from their patients.
According to the Associated Press, all hospitals that signed an agreement with the union before the deadline on Sunday accepted hikes of more than 7%, 6%, and 5% over the next three years.
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