More than 7,000 Nurses at Two New York City Hospitals Begin a Walkout After Contract Negotiations Broke Down Overnight

More than 7,000 nurses at two New York City hospitals began a walkout at 6 a.m. Monday after contract negotiations broke down overnight. Though tentative deals have been reached with nurses at several other New York City hospitals, those at Mount Sinai Hospital on Manhattans Upper East Side and at three locations of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx rejected their offers. “After bargaining late into the night at Montefiore and Mount Sinai Hospital yesterday, no tentative agreements were reached. Today, more than 7,000 nurses at two hospitals are on strike for fair contracts that improve patient care,” the New York State Nurses Association said in a statement Monday. Photos shared by the NYSNA show striking nurses outside Mount Sinai and a Montefiore location early Monday, decked out in red and waving signs that read, “We Deserve Safe Staffing,” and, “Dont Silence Our Voice! On Staffing.” “The union refused to accept the exact same offer of a 19.1 percent wage increase over three years that it agreed to at eight other hospitals, including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, and disregarded Governor Hochuls proposal for binding arbitation [sic] to avoid a strike,” Mount Sinai said in a statement. The union said that at the striking hospitals, the sticking point is not wages but understaffing. “We call on Gov. Hochul to join us in putting patients over profits and to enforce existing nurse staffing laws,” the NYSNA said in a statement. “Nurses dont want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients.”