NYC nurse strike ends after hospitals reach a deal

The three-day nurse’s strike that had four New York City hospitals scrambling for coverage after 7,000 nurses walked out of work has ended Thursday (Jan. 12) morning.

The New York State Nurses Association union reached tentative deals with Mount Sinai Health System and Montefiore Health System, which operates three hospitals in the Bronx. The nurses had been complaining about staff shortages that have caused widespread burnout, conflicting with their ability to care for their patients properly.

“This is a historic victory for New York City nurses and for nurses across the country,” the union president Nancy Hagans said in a statement. “NYSNA nurses have done the impossible, saving lives night and day, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we’ve again shown that nothing is impossible for nurse heroes.”

“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,” Hagans added. “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.”

During the three-day strike, all four hospitals stayed open. They were forced to use higher-cost temporary nursing services to care for patients and transfer employees to other hospitals or have them take care of nonmedical nursing tasks. Selective procedures also had to be postponed.

Nurses were sent back to work at 7 a.m. Thursday. “The strike is over and we have an agreement. Thank you, Mount Sinai team, for your unwavering dedication to world-class patient care,” the Mount Sinai Health System wrote on Twitter.

“We are pleased to announce that Montefiore Medical Center has reached a tentative agreement with the leadership of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) on a new collective bargaining agreement,” Montefiore Medical Center wrote in a statement on their website.

They continued, “Our tireless focus remained on ensuring Montefiore nurses have the best possible working environment, with significant wage and benefit enhancements, and we worked hard to secure this outcome with NYSNA. We know this strike impacted everyone — not just our nurses — and we were committed to coming to a resolution as soon as possible to minimize disruption to patient care.”