NEW YORK — The infuriated head of the state nurses union unloaded Saturday on Mount Sinai Hospital officials for its decision to stop negotiations as a strike deadline with a promised walkout loomed.
“We are outraged by these tactics,” said New York State Nurses Association President Nancy Hagans. “These employers have engaged in unfair and unlawful behavior trying to silence our nurses.”
Mount Sinai, along with Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Morningside and West, remain the last hospitals without a deal as union officials warned of a 6 a.m. Monday walkout of 8,700 nurses. Only Mount Sinai has halted negotiations as the clock ticks toward a walkout, said Hagans — a charge the hospital disputed.
“What I would urge is they come to the table and bargain in good faith,” said the union leader, specifically citing the need to negotiate over the lack of staffing in recent years ... “The pandemic really exposed how short-staffed we’ve been. When the nurses left, they never replaced them.”
The hospital, in a statement Saturday, said it was actually the union that needs to return to the bargaining table and continue the negotiations.
“Mount Sinai is dismayed by NYSNA’s reckless actions,” said the hospital’s response, adding their proposed pay raise was in line with other city hospital offers. “The union is jeopardizing patients’ care, and it’s forcing valued Mount Sinai nurses to sacrifice their dedication to patient care and their own livelihood.”
There was better news earlier Saturday when nurses at three city hospitals reached tentative agreements on new contracts.
The union announced the pending deals with Bronx Care, the Flushing Hospital Medical Center and the Brooklyn Hospital Center, while nurses at Maimonides Medical Center ratified their new three-year settlement with the facility on Friday night.
“The approval of this agreement is good for Maimonides, good for our nurses and good for the patients we serve,” said Maimonides Health CEO Ken Gibbs. “We worked together to find common ground that supports our hardworking nurses and ensures our patients ... continue to receive the best possible care.”
Separate strike authorizations were pending at several other medical facilities in Brooklyn.
With tentative deals now also reached at Richmond University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian, negotiators continued to bargain in hopes of a new agreement at the remaining facilities. Hagans previously said the union was ready to continue talks until 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
The union president said the number of nurses has declined steadily since the pandemic and staffing levels were now dangerously low, bringing additional urgency to the bargaining tables. She also took note of the “seven-figure salaries” paid to some hospital executives.
The union head said her workers seek a better patient-to-nurse staffing ratio, alleging the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai assigned one nurse for four of the tiny patients as opposed to the usual one nurse for two infants.
Other negotiation points included a ratio of one nurse to two patients in intensive care and at least one nurse for every five patients in medical surgical units.
“Reaching an agreement is all about our patients,” she said. “We put our patients above profit, and we were willing to negotiate. Our biggest concern is our patients, and right now staffing is our top priority.”
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