NYC’s Largest Nurses’ Walkout Continues into Fourth Day

The largest nurses’ strike in NYC history stretched into its fourth day on Jan. 15 with the union and three privately run city hospitals remaining at a loggerhead. The strike,which began on Jan. 12th, involves nearly 15,000 nurses across three major hospitals: Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan and Montefoire Health System in the Bronx.

“Nurses care for New Yorkers, if nurses are not healthy, who will take care of New Yorkers?” asked Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association at a rally outside Montefiore Health Systems in the Bronx.

The NYSNA said the nurses it represents are fighting for better benefits, better staffing ratios, wage hikes, and protection against violence.

The strike is now officially longer than the three-day that the NYSNA undertook against the same hospital systems three years ago. There was labor peace on Long Island, however, where 1,000 nurses at the Northwell Health facilities ratified the tentative agreement that was reached between that hospital and the NYSNA days earlier.

There was also a glimmer of hope after NewYork-Presbytarian and the union said on Jan. 15 they were going to return to the bargaining table that evening.

But NYSNA said it was not calling off the pickets of striking workers outside the hosptials. “Until management agrees to a fair contract that protects patients and nurses, strike lines will continue daily.”

The hospitals are arguing that the union’s economic demands are too extreme, given the drastic cuts in federal health care spending.

In response to the walkout, hospitals have brought in thousands of temporary travel nurses and agency staff, at a reported total cost exceeding $100 million. Management insists that patient care remains safe and uninterrupted, though some elective surgeries have been postponed or canceled citywide to prioritize urgent needs.

A new flashpoint emerged Tuesday Jan. 13th, when it was revealed that Mount Sinai fired three nurses via voicemail on Jan. 11 just hours before the strike began. The hospital accused the trio of deliberately sabotaging emergency preparedness drills by hiding critical supplies, which they claimed to be apparent on security footage. A joint statement from nurses Berina Selimovic and Liliana Prestis, two of the three axed nurses, stated that were fired because the hospital wanted to send a message before the strike began. “We were both fired in a pure act of intimidation.”

Selimovic claims that she was openly planning to join her colleagues on the picket line before receiving the termination voicemail. Prestia played the voicemail telling her she was terminated during a press conference outside Mount Sinai West, where all three nurses worked.

“Mount Sinai cannot continue to punish nurses who speak out against patient safety and nurse safety,” said Prestia.

The union had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations board of the axing. It had filed a similar complaint late year after several nurses were reprimanded for speaking to the media, after an emotionally disturbed patient last November had threatened to shoot up Mount Sinai hospital on Madison Ave. He was shot dead by cops.

The hospitals have reportedly hired high powered PR firms to try to sway public opinion. If passing motorists are any indication, the nurses continue to enjoy public support. Protestors, many of them dressed in red, elicited many honks of solidarity from passing cars when Straus News visited Mount Sinai West on Jan. 15.