(The Center Square) — Thousands of unionized New York City nurses at two major hospitals could be heading back to the bedside this weekend after reaching a tentative contract deal, ending a nearly month-long strike over wages and benefits.
The estimated 10,500 nurses at Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside and West reached tentative agreements late Sunday and early Monday, according to the New York State Nurses Association.
The proposed three-year contracts, which must still be ratified by the union’s rank and file membership, include salary increases of more than 12% and new rules for staffing levels and workplace violence protection.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai systems are “heading back to the bedside with our heads held high after winning fair tentative contracts that maintain enforceable safe staffing ratios, improve protections from workplace violence, and maintain health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs.”
“Nurses sacrificed their own pay and healthcare while on strike to defend patient care for all of New York,” NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane said in a statement. “We helped galvanize a movement for worker and healthcare justice that reached beyond New York City.”
More than 15,000 unionized nurses at Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals hit the picket lines shortly on Jan. 12 after union leaders said talks with hospital officials failed to make “meaningful progress” on core demands. Those range from improved pay and health care benefits to staffing levels and workplace violence protections.
Ahead of the strike, hospital executives warned the union’s proposed salary and benefit packages would drive up hospital costs by billions of dollars in the coming years as they face financial pressures over cuts in Medicaid funding and other federal support.
The health care systems have pointed out that the current pay for unionized nurses’ salaries averages $162,000 to $165,000 a year, not including benefits.
If the tentative contract agreements are ratified later this week, nurses would return to work at the two health care systems on Saturday, according to the nurses’ union.
The union said Monday that the “unfair labor practice strike” at NewYork-Presbyterian continues. The key sticking point in negotiations is safe staffing, union leaders said.
