Talks continue at 5 NYC hospitals as nurses strike deadline looms
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Negotiations continue Friday ahead of Monday's strike deadline involving thousands of New York City nurses.
Approximately 10,000 nurses across five hospitals say they'll strike Monday if they don't get better pay and staffing.
Nurses would go on strike at 6 a.m. Monday. The nurses are prepared to negotiate until 11:59 p.m. Sunday night, and past the midnight deadline if possible.
New York State Nursing Association President Nancy Hagans said the remaining hospitals are negotiating, except the main campus of Mount Sinai.
"Right now we are bargaining for the safe patient-nurse ratios at the other hospitals, including Mount Sinai," Hagans said. "We are urging Mount Sinai to come back to the table and negotiate with our nurses, negotiate in good faith, walking away in the middle of negotiations is negotiating in bad faith."
Negotiations at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside continued Friday afternoon and into the evening. Officials at Mount Sinai Hospital's main campus are hopeful negotiations with their nurses will resume Saturday morning.
Mount Sinai has offered its nurses 18% wage increases over the next three years, according to an internal memo shared Thursday night. The increases would be 7%, 6% and 5% over the next three years, which year to year compounds to 19.1%.
The hospital believes it is similar to increases previously agreed to by the nurses in negotiations with NewYork-Presbyterian. But Mount Sinai management walked away from the table at midnight and cancelled bargaining session for Friday, Hagans said.
Similarly, Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx says it offered an 18% wage increase, as well as "fully funded healthcare for life, and a significant increase in registered nurses in the emergency departments."
In an internal memo, Mount Sinai informed staff of "aggressive planning in response" to the strike threat, which will include "diverting a majority of ambulances," beginning "to cancel some elective surgeries ... will perform emergency surgery only," "starting to transfer patients" to other hospitals and "working to safely discharge as many patients as appropriate."
The hospital began to move some of its most vulnerable patients Friday afternoon, including fragile newborns under intensive care.
Dr. Frances Cartwright is Mount Sinai's chief nursing officer.
"Talk about vulnerable patients, defenseless little babies," Cartwright said. "We can't wait until Monday, we have to plan. I sure am hoping for the best, but you have to plan for the worst."
Mount Sinai management admits they walked out Thursday night after declaring an impasse. Among the strike contingency plans? Bringing in replacement nurses. Soon, all but the most critical cases will be diverted and non-emergency procedures will be postponed.
Friday morning, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul commented on the situation, saying she has taken a "very intense role" in the talks and has been "in constant conversation" with the hospitals and union.
"My full expectation is that this will be resolved, because there is no alternative," she said. "We need to make sure that people in New York are taken care of."
The New York State Nurses Association made clear Thursday that a key negotiating point surrounding its stated main issue of staffing is enforcement of staffing ratios.
A provision in the NY Presbyterian contract requires enforcement of staff to patient ratios, instead of a mediator making non-mandatory recommendations about staffing levels.
The union announced agreements Thursday with Maimonides Health and Richmond University Medical Center.
ALSO READ: NYC mayor calls out de Blasio for team's criticism of administration
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
