Thousands of nurses in New York City walked off the job on Monday, striking over failed negotiations to address working conditions, pay and staffing levels. The labor action involves more than 7,000 nurses at New York City’s two largest hospitals: Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital’s main campus in Manhattan. Patients are feeling the disruption, with elective surgeries being postponed and ambulances being diverted to other health care facilities.
The New York State Nurses Association, the union representing the workers, said Monday they had no choice but to strike, in order to draw attention to chronic understaffing. Nurses say this began before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving them to care for too many patients. Hospital officials arranged for traveling nurses and other temporary staffing to minimize impact on patients. Montefiore and Mount Sinai are the last of a group of hospitals with union contracts expiring at the same time.
Other hospitals were able to strike an agreement by the deadline, staving off an even larger picket line. New Jersey’s largest nurses union, HPAE, says they stand with the striking nurses, adding that the industry is facing a staffing crisis unlike any other in history.
