New York — New York City Nurses who have left work Negotiations with hospital administrators are scheduled to resume on Thursday to try to end the city’s largest nurses’ strike in decades.
The New York State Nurses Association said its negotiating members will meet with their counterparts at New York-Presbyterian Hospital late Thursday, the fourth day of the strike.
They will meet with officials at other affected hospitals, including Mount Sinai and Montefiore, on Friday, although the union said some have not yet agreed to sit down.
Each medical center negotiates with the union independently, and not all hospitals run by the three health care systems are affected by the strike.
The opposing sides have not met since Sunday, the day before nearly 15,000 unionized nurses were to walk off their jobs.
Hospitals hired thousands of temporary nurses to keep emergency rooms and other facilities running during the strike.
Nurses say they are seeking to protect their health care benefits, as well as secure contract provisions that address staffing levels and safety against workplace violence.
Nurses often bear the brunt of patients’ frustrations, and interactions can quickly become violent, said Cheryl Ostroff, a nurse at Mount Sinai.
“I was scratched in the face, bitten in multiple places, kicked in the ribs where it left bruises, spat on, pushed, punched, sexually assaulted — you name it,” she said at a union rally on Thursday. “This is unacceptable, and we want our hospitals to protect us. Why is this a difficult question?”
Hospitals say unions are seeking “unrealistic” and unaffordable pay increases.
Mount Sinai says the union’s proposals would raise the average annual salary of its nurses from about $162,000 to nearly $250,000 in three years, while Montefiore says their salaries would rise to $220,000.
The union rejected these allegations, describing them as “strange calculations,” but refused to provide counter-numbers.
“We are committed to continuing to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our deep respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the difficult realities of today’s health care environment,” NewYork-Presbyterian said in a statement Thursday.
Nurses union leaders A rally was held along with elected officials and members of the city’s other major labor unions Thursday in front of Mount Sinai’s Morningside campus.
The hospital, which is located near Columbia University in upper Manhattan, is among those that have not yet agreed to resume contract talks, according to the union.
Simone Way, a nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside, said she and her fellow nurses had “sounded the alarm for years” about appropriate staffing levels, but administrators refused to listen.
“It is very difficult to provide the level of care that our patients deserve,” she said at the rally. “There are limits to what good nurses can do.”
A Mount Sinai spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the march or the status of contract talks.
Brendan Carr, CEO of the health system, said in a video Released earlier Thursday Some unionized nurses who chose to work rather than join the picket line were harassed and intimidated.
Addressing hospital workers, he said: “Bullying, intimidation, and threats devalue nurses, undermine our culture, and are not consistent with our values at Mount Sinai.” “You deserve better.”
The union filed an unfair labor practices lawsuit against Mount Sinai for Finish the three nurses On the eve of the strike, they did not respond immediately.
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