Photo courtesy of Assemblyman Dinowitz (A.D. 81)
Elected officials joined some of the 15,000 striking nurses across The Bronx and Manhattan at Montefiore Medical Center in Norwood, and at other Montefiore locations, on Days 3 and 4 of the nurses’ strike action. Beginning on Monday, Jan. 12, as reported, the strike followed prior failed negotiations between the parties. [Read our previous coverage by clicking on the links and read our Day 2 story here.]
Nurses at Mount Sinai and New York Presbyterian private hospital systems, who are also members of New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), are also striking, as reported.
As pointed out by Montefiore RN Judy Gonzalez during a prior discussion with Norwood News, Montefiore is a private but non-for-profit hospital. “New York State, and this is a nice thing, doesn’t allow hospitals to be for-profit but a lot of not-for-profit hospitals behave very much like for-profit hospitals and we have a CEO that earned $14 million last year,” Gonzalez said at a separate Bronx healthcare townhall last year, adding that the hospital functions like a business in her view.
Photo courtesy of NYSNA
NYSNA’s statement on the strike is attached further below and their main concerns are outlined in our previous stories. The main one appears to be the patient / nurse ratio. Montefiore had responded to this and the nurses’ other concerns in our previous story, which can be read here.
Local Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), local City Councilman Eric Dinowitz (C.D. 11), State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez (S.D. 34), who used to represent parts of Norwood as a former assemblymember, but now mostly represents the East Bronx, City Council Member Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14), who represents parts of the West Bronx, City Councilmember Shirley Aldebol (C.D. 13), who represents parts of the East Bronx and who is a former union leader, Assembly Member Brian Cunningham (A.D. 43), who represents parts of Brooklyn, and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. joined the nurses on the picket line on East 210th Street on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
“Nurses should be entitled to safe staffing levels, quality healthcare benefits and a safe work environment,” the assemblyman later said in part. “Our nurses, hospital staff and patients deserve the best conditions that can be provided and that begins with a fair contract.”
Photo courtesy of NYSNA
He continued, “I’ve been to some of the other [Montefiore] hospitals in Westchester; it’s really nice there! It’s really nice but the people that I represent deserve a good environment. That means not lying around in the hallways, not not having no bathroom available.”
He added, “We want people in The Bronx to have everything that people in other locations expect and deserve so I am calling upon Montefiore to negotiate a fair contract, a fair contract for our heroes, our nurses, and I just want to say to all of you, thank you. Thank you for what you do for our community because our community cannot survive without you, so a fair contract now!”
Screenshot courtesy of State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33)
The other elected officials also addressed those gathered. Later retweeting a post by NYSNA, which read, “Thank you to elected leaders who understand this is a fight for patient and nurse safety in every borough of this city! @EricDinowitzNYC @JeffreyDinowitz Shirley Aldebol @PiSanchezNYC Nathalia Fernandez and Brian Cunningham #solidarity,” the councilman wrote, “I stand with our nurses.”
For her part, retweeting an NYSNA statement on the strike, Sanchez wrote, “I stand in solidarity with @nynurses. These hospital systems must come back to the negotiating table.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Jan. 14, as reported, as the nurses at Montefiore Medical Center continued their rally on Day 4 at the same location, local State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), chair of the health committee in Albany, addressed the demonstrators and thanked those supporting them.
Photo courtesy of NYSNA
“This hospital is in my district so basically all the folks that you take care of are my neighbors and the people that are my constituents so I, firstly and most importantly, I want to say thank you for taking care of them every single day that you’re here,” the senator said. He later added that a couple of years ago, the nurses were instrumental in making sure that safe staffing legislation was passed, meaning an adequate nurse/patient ratio to ensure patient and staff safety in the State of New York.
Rivera said while everyone might not agree on everything, it was important to sit down and talk it through. “As Judy [Gonzalez, Montefiore RN], said, the most important people here who we’re talking about are the patients,” he said. “And the demands that you’re making are about certainly the conditions of your family and the conditions of your work, but that you can serve the patients better! Those are the things that you’re asking for. Thank you for doing the work that you do and thank you for being here. Let’s get this done!”
Accompanied by resident musicians, who were also seen on previous days playing and supporting the nurses earlier this week, the senator later sang Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.” He later said, “This afternoon, I stood in solidarity with @nynurses at Montefiore on the fourth day of their strike. I was proud to work with these nurses to pass safe staffing laws to keep patients safe. I’m urging hospital management and our nurses to return to the negotiating table and deliver a fair contract.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
Rivera later told Norwood News in part, “I’m here to support the nurses. To me, it’s very simple. They don’t want to be out here. They want to be next to their patients.” He encouraged everybody to get back around the negotiating table in good faith, after taking a deep breath, acknowledging that everyone was a little agitated, that there were a lot of differences and set positions on both sides, and to think about the patients ultimately. He said he was hopeful this could happen Friday, saying he understood that as of Thursday, that was not the case.
Acknowledging NYC Mayor Zohran Mandani had joined other striking nurses on the picket line in Manhattan on Monday, we asked the senator if he knew if the mayor was involved in brokering a deal. He said he did not have direct knowledge of that but said he guessed the mayor, like many others, was encouraging everyone to get back to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, 35-year employee of Montefiore, Hilda Hayes, RN, addressed the crowd at the rally saying in part once again that it wasn’t fair to have patients waiting in a corridor and that this was not the case years ago. Check out some videos of the rally on Day 4 here and here.
Screenshot courtesy of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) via IG
On Friday, Jan. 16, Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, shared that she stood in solidarity with the nurses, and said in part in relation to the ongoing strike, “Right now, @nynurses has initiated the largest nurse’s strike in New York State HISTORY. And they need our help. They are asking us to show up to their picket lines (locations in video),, message their CEOs (their site has the link), contribute to their hardship fund, and pledge to support NY Nurses.”
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.