Hospital officials and union leaders traded barbs Tuesday but did not return to the bargaining table during the second day of New York City’s biggest nursing strike in decades, the Associated Press reported.
The union accused one hospital, Mount Sinai, of illegally firing three nurses. Mount Sinai said the medical center fired the three individuals after they sabotaged emergency preparedness drills.
Montefiore Medical Center criticized what it described as the union’s “reckless demands” and “troubling proposals” in contract talks. The hospital also sought to downplay the strike’s impact, saying it has “not canceled even one patient’s access to care” during the work stoppage.
NewYork-Presbyterian, one of the impacted hospital systems, said in a statement that the strike is designed to create disruption but that patients are continuing to receive the care they trust it to provide. Mt. Sinai said around 20% of its regular nurses have opted to remain on duty rather than join the strike line.
The union and several nurses disputed the hospitals’ framing. Fired Mt. Sinai nurses said they were being silenced for being outspoken union organizers, and Liliana Prestia said at a rally Tuesday at Mount Sinai’s flagship campus on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, “We will not be bullied.” Prestia also said it was Mount Sinai’s “cruel attempt to stop us from joining the strike line and to make us an example to our fellow nurses.”
Union officials said none of the hospitals has agreed to additional bargaining sessions since the last meetings on Sunday. Montefiore said the union hasn’t reached out.
The union said roughly 15,000 nurses walked off the job Monday morning at multiple campuses of the three hospital systems. The hospitals said they have hired temporary nurses in response, and nurses and administrators have urged patients not to avoid getting care during the strike.
New York State Nurses Association said it filed an unfair labor practice charge against Mt. Sinai on Tuesday for terminating the three nurses on the eve of the strike. Mt. Sinai said the nurses hid supplies from replacement nurses in training during emergency preparedness drills and called the behavior “completely unacceptable,” saying it was captured on security footage.
In contract talks, NewYork-Presbyterian called the union’s wage proposals “unrealistic” and said they represent a roughly 25% wage increase over the next three years. It also stressed that administrators are not seeking to eliminate health benefits for nurses, as the union claims. Montefiore criticized a union proposal it said would prevent nurses from being fired even if they are found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job; the union called that characterization “blatantly mischaracterizing” a proposal that it said would add protections for nurses dealing with substance use disorders.
As the strike continued, the city Emergency Management Department said it hadn’t seen major impacts to patient care so far. The Greater New York Hospital Association said hospitals canceled scheduled surgeries, transferred patients from more specialized units and increased discharges in the days leading up to the strike, and Brian Conway, a spokesperson for the association, said ambulances routed patients to other hospitals on the first day without reporting diversions Tuesday.
For nurses picketing outside Mt. Sinai, the focus remained on securing what they described as safer staffing and better working conditions. Roy Permaul, an intensive care unit nurse who was among those picketing, said he and colleagues were prepared to stay out for as long as needed to secure a better contract. Dania Munoz, a nurse practitioner at Mt. Sinai, said the fight was not just about wages, saying, “We deserve fair pay, but this is about safety for our patients, for ourselves and for our profession,” and “We need health care. We need safety. We need more staffing.”