NYC nurses strike: Negotiations resume with hospital methods as nurses’ strike enters eleventh day
NEW YORK (WABC) — In a letter obtained by Eyewitness Information, Montefiore warned its hanging nurses that they are going to lose their well being advantages in 10 days if the strike continues.
The hospital system warned union members that they’ve till February 1 earlier than they would wish to start out paying for their very own private advantages.
Montefiore supplies free healthcare to its nurses and says they’re required by federal legislation to inform the nurses of the upcoming deadline.
A Montefiore spokesperson stated in an announcement, “Montefiore has at all times been proud to offer free healthcare to our working nurses that features no copays, no deductibles, free pharmaceuticals, dental, and imaginative and prescient, and we’ve at all times acknowledged that these extraordinarily beneficiant advantages should not up for negotiation. As required by federal legislation, we’re informingour hanging nurses that on February 1 theywill lose eligibility for these well being advantages, and at that time, could proceed their protection underneath COBRA at their very own expense.”
Contained in the Occasions Sq. Sheraton Lodge the nurses union remained holed up into the evening bargaining with hospital administration in what’s undeniably changing into a draining course of.
Montefiore burdened this isn’t punitive due to the strike however that it’s commonplace for insurance coverage firms to require that coated staff obtain a paycheck with the intention to obtain advantages.
“Montefiore has at all times been proud to offer free healthcare to our working nurses. These extraordinarily beneficiant advantages should not up for negotiation,” a spokesperson stated.
Either side returned to the bargaining desk on Thursday, the eleventh day of the New York Metropolis nurses’ strike after an urge from Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
NYSNA nurses resumed bargaining with all three hospital methods, and plan to cut price day by day to settle honest contracts that defend affected person and nurse security.
Nurses for the previous week and a half have been on the picket line within the bitter chilly as negotiations turned bitter between the union and the three hospital methods which have but to make a deal and get a good contract on the desk.
On Thursday nurses had some reinforcement on the picket line from Commissioner of the NYC Division of Client and Employee Safety exterior Mount Sinai Hospital on the Higher East Facet.
“My division goes to face with staff not solely after they’re on strike, however whenever you’re again on the job,” Client and Employee Safety Commissioner Sam Levine stated.
As conversations resume, that does not imply nurses will cease their battle. Nurses will proceed to picket and strike till tentative agreements are reached with the hospitals.
On Monday the union representing medical residents and interns introduced its members will be a part of the nurses on the picket line on Monday if the hospitals don’t attain a deal by then.
The large query is, may this be their final day exterior?
Wednesday evening, the nurses gathered in Washington Heights. Fifteen-thousand nurses in Manhattan and the Bronx walked off the job final week.
They’re calling for higher pay and advantages, elevated staffing, and tighter office safety at Mount Sinai, NewYork Presbyterian, and Montefiore.
For the reason that strike started, the nurses’ union has been on the bargaining desk simply as soon as with every of the hospital methods, with no decision.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated, “I am very heartened by the information. Every day I have been on the picket line or spoken in regards to the strike, I’ve at all times inspired a swift and speedy decision to the strike, and likewise recognizing the unimaginable work that nurses do within the metropolis. I can inform you that I’m bored with talking to a working particular person and asking them the place they stay in New York Metropolis, after which they inform me it is a state close by as a result of they can not afford to stay right here. I am heartened by this information and I look ahead to the decision of the strike.”
Whereas the three hospital methods and the union again on the bargaining desk, it is going to be attention-grabbing to see if this time these conversations take a distinct course.
The hospitals are hiring freelance nurses, often called “journey nurses,” and administration claims important operations have continued.
Nonetheless, some nurses say that using journey nurses might not be sustainable over an extended interval if the strike continues.
“I undoubtedly suppose they’ll see a decline within the quantity of nurses which might be available to take care of the sufferers in New York Metropolis,” stated journey nurse Renard Walker.
The same strike three years in the past lasted simply three days.
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