NYC hospitals have broken their commitment to maintain health benefits for nurses and bargain in good faith, according to the union representing caretakers on the picket line, as the historic nurses strike reached two weeks on Sunday.
After being urged back to the negotiating table by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday and Friday, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which represents the nearly 15,000 striking nurses, said talks have failed.
“All hospital systems reneged on their commitment to offer straightforward counter-proposals on salaries that would not make nurses choose between maintaining their health benefits, getting a pay raise, or improving hospital safety,” NYSNA said in a statement.
Nurses from Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyerian in Manhattan and Montefiore in the Bronx have been on strike since Jan. 12. They are demanding better pay, more staff and improved workplace conditions.
The nurses maintain that hospital management is proposing “drastic cuts” to health benefits for frontline nurses and their families.
Management at the hospitals says differently.
Brendan Carr, MD, CEO of Mount Sinai, said management has been attending bargaining sessions and offered lump sum increases to NYSNA so the union can “allocate those funds” however it chooses.
Management at NewYork-Presbyterian said it presented a series of proposals that the union “walked away” from on Friday.
“We presented a series of proposals, including an increased economic proposal with healthcare benefits which remain at zero cost to our nurses, and are some of the best in the nation,” the hospital said in a statement. “NYSNA walked away from the negotiations this evening with no commitment to bargain on Saturday.”
The strike continued as NYC braced for the impact of a major winter storm. It was unclear at press time if the nurses were at the picket line during the storm on Sunday.
No new negotiation meetings are scheduled, but hospital bosses have said they remain committed to the bargaining process.
The affected hospitals and their emergency rooms remain open with the help of agency nurses and the NYS Department of Health. Both hospital management and the union urge New Yorkers to seek care at hospitals if they need it.
