New York City nurses continue strike against 2 hospitals for 3rd day
The city is monitoring the strike at the two hospital systems, which account for 16% of all hospital beds in the city
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The nurses strike in New York City continued for the third day Wednesday. For people who need care and for the striking nurses not getting paid, time is of the essence.
Hundreds of nurses gathered outside Mount Sinai Main and Montefiore Bronx, with no contract agreement yet between the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and the two hospitals.
Nurses at both hospitals are demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Mount Sinai administrators have suggested a possible breakthrough in regard to the nurse to patient ratio.
"I do believe that when our Mount Sinai nurses look at what we've offered, I think they will feel valued, respected and know that they're going to continue to be a part of a team that's going to lead change so that we can retain our nurse," Frances Cartwright, Mount Sinai's Chief Nursing Officer, said.
Mount Sinai and the NYSNA did resume negotiation conversations on Tuesday.
The union points to a busy emergency department at Montefiore, saying there are simply too few nurses for all the patients. Emergency room nurses have complained of taking care of patients in hallways.
Talks resumed at Montefiore Monday afternoon, and although an agreement was not reached, both sides had indicated they were close and continued their negotiations on Tuesday.
As many as 3,500 nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and about 3,600 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan walked off the job Monday after last-minute talks to prevent the strike broke down.
Jed Basubas said he generally attends to eight to 10 patients at a time, twice the ideal number in the units where he works. Nurse practitioner Juliet Escalon said she sometimes skips bathroom breaks to attend to patients.
So does Ashleigh Woodside, who said her 12-hour operating-room shifts often stretch to 14 hours because short staffing forces her and others to work overtime.
"We love our job. We want to take care of our patients. But we just want to do it safely and in a humane way, where we feel appreciated," Woodside said.
The hospitals said they had offered the same raises - totaling 19% over three years - that the union had accepted at several other facilities where contract talks reached tentative agreements in recent days.
Montefiore said it had agreed to add 170 more nurses.
Mount Sinai's administration said the union's focus on nurse-to-patient ratios "ignores the progress we have made to attract and hire more new nurses, despite a global shortage of healthcare workers that is impacting hospitals across the country."
In a new internal memo obtained by ABC News, Mount Sinai president Dr. David Reich told staff Wednesday night that "hundreds of additional travel nurses are arriving and are being oriented today and tomorrow," and that "operations here at MSH are becoming increasingly stable."
The city is monitoring the strike at the two hospital systems, which account for 16% of all hospital beds in the city. Montefiore accounts for more than half of the beds in the Bronx.
The union also announced that Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center, and BronxCare all approved their contracts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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