A three-day nurses strike that disrupted patient care and services at two major New York City hospitals ended early Thursday morning after a tentative deal was reached overnight — triggering the return of more than 7,000 nurses to work.
Many of the nurses who first walked off the job Monday morning at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx were back caring for patients around dawn Thursday following a contract settlement between the two hospitals and the New York State Nursing Association, which had been seeking improved nurse-to-patient ratios for workers stretched to the limit after the COVID pandemic thinned staffing levels at hospitals across the city.
“Through our unity and by putting it all on the line, we won enforceable safe staffing ratios at both Montefiore and Mount Sinai where nurses went on strike for patient care,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in a statement. “Today, we can return to work with our heads held high, knowing that our victory means safer care for our patients and more sustainable jobs for our profession.”
