Greater than 7,000 nurses at two main New York Metropolis hospitals walked out Monday morning after talks to avert a strike failed in a single day.
In a dispute over pay and persistent understaffing, the New York State Nurses Affiliation mentioned greater than 3,500 nurses at Montefiore Medical Middle within the Bronx and about 3,600 at Mount Sinai Hospital on the Higher East Facet in Manhattan would go on strike.
The walkout started at 6 a.m. EST after a weekend of negotiations and no new contract in time for the strike begin date. Representatives from each hospitals have been again on the bargaining desk Monday.
“Nurses do not need to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to significantly contemplate our proposals to deal with the determined disaster of unsafe staffing that harms our sufferers,” the union mentioned in an announcement late Sunday.
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The Nurses Affiliation had initially warned that it will strike in any respect 12 hospitals with union contracts on the identical time – however a number of struck tentative offers in latest days, together with two new agreements late Sunday night.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s ratified deal, signed on Saturday, is seen as a template for the negotiations with different hospital techniques – with 4,000 nurses gaining raises of seven%, 6%, and 5% over the subsequent three years whereas additionally rising staffing ranges.
As of Monday morning, BronxCare Well being System, Flushing Hospital Medical Middle, Maimonides Medical Middle, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, NewYork-Presbyterian, Richmond College Medical Middle and The Brooklyn Hospital Middle have reached tentative agreements or new contracts.
How have hospitals responded? Will medical procedures be delayed?
Sufferers are more likely to see emergency room visits and childbirth disruptions if the nurses strike. Hospitals ready for the walkout by transferring sufferers, diverting ambulances to different establishments, suspending nonemergency medical procedures and arranging to usher in short-term staffing.
Gov. Kathy Hochul urged the union and the hospitals late Sunday to take their dispute to binding arbitration “so that every one events can swiftly attain a decision.”
“The New York State Division of Well being will proceed to implement staffing necessities beneath the legislation at these hospitals to take care of the supply of important well being care companies to the group and shield affected person well being and security,” the assertion learn.
Montefiore’s administration mentioned in an announcement that it was keen to let an arbitrator settle the contract “as a method to reaching an equitable final result.”
Mount Sinai’s administration mentioned in an announcement that the union’s give attention to staffing-to-patient ratios “ignores the progress we have now made to draw and rent extra new nurses, regardless of a world scarcity of well being care staff that’s impacting hospitals throughout the nation.”
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In an announcement on Monday, the Nurses Affiliation urged all sufferers to not delay getting medical care.
“Sufferers ought to search hospital care instantly in the event that they want it. We might reasonably be those offering that care, however our bosses have pushed us to be out right here as an alternative.”
Contributing: The Related Press
Camille Nice is a trending visible producer on USA TODAY’s NOW staff.
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