Day 21 (Week 3) Sunday, Feb. 1, of the NYSNA Nurses strike outside Montefiore Medical Center on 210th St, Norwood, The Bronx. Video by Síle Moloney

New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses continued their strike action, the longest in New York City history, on Day 21 (Week 3), Sunday, Feb. 1, outside Montefiore Medical Center on 210th Street in Norwood, The Bronx, as plans are afoot to rally in Manhattan on Monday, Feb. 2, outside the office of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is running for reelection this year.

 

On Saturday, Jan. 31, NYSNA nurses from Montefiore, Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, and NewYork-Presbyterian said they came to the bargaining table at the Javits Center the same day and later issued the following statement, attributed to the New York State Nurses Association:

 

“As NYSNA nurses have said from the very beginning of bargaining in September, and even after 20 days on strike in the bitter cold, we are not willing to cut corners on patient and nurse safety. Today, nurses gathered at the Javits Center and put forward comprehensive revised proposals that improve safe staffing levels with no takeaways on safe staffing accountability, protect nurses’ health benefits, prevent workplace violence, and increase wages to help recruit and retain experienced nurses at the bedside. We streamlined and revised our proposals in an effort to bring hospital executives back to the table to negotiate in good faith and settle fair contracts as quickly as possible that get nurses back to work to care for New York City.”

 

The statement continued, “NYSNA nurses are serious about settling fair contracts and getting back to work delivering the quality care all New Yorkers deserve. Now hospitals need to get serious at the bargaining table, end this strike, settle fair contracts that immediately and unconditionally bring back the nurses who are committed to care for our communities, and finally show that they respect New York City’s frontline nurse heroes and our patients.”

 

Meanwhile, when contacted on Sunday for a progress update on the negotiations, a spokesperson for Montefiore shared the following joint statement from Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian:

 

“Today, we made a fair, reasonable, and responsible economic proposal that provides annual wage increases and continues generous healthcare and pension benefits, under an economic structure that works for all of the parties and the safety-net hospitals that are tied to our economic terms. We are now assessing the rest of the union’s proposals so that we can respond with a comprehensive settlement offer in order to end the strike and bring our nurses back.”

Read our previous coverage of the strike here, here, here, here, here, and here.