Day 3: Staffing is Key Issue for Striking Nurses at Mt Sinai, Montefiore

Staffing levels, rather than wage increases, have emerged as the main hurdle as the strike at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and the three Montefiore Hospital locations in the Bronx stretched into a third day. A total of 7,100 nurses struck the hospitals Jan. 9.

Hundreds of picketers crowded both sides of the sidewalk outside Mount Sinai on the Upper East Side the first day of the strike calling for safer conditions and lower patient-to-nurse ratios. Local tv stations said that nurses outside Mount Sinai were singing, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” by the Twisted Sisters.

Pay Hike Not as Important as Staffing Levels

“It’s mainly about the safe staffing ratios of nurse to patient,” a cardiology nurse practitioner, who did not want to give her name, said as she walked the picket line outside Mount Sinai at Madison Ave. and 99th St. “That’s the main reason we’re out here today...I see that nurses on patient care units are struggling with demands and increased patient load, and it really affects patient care.”

[A pay hike] is not as important to me as safe staffing,” she said. “We’ve been trying to get more nurses for several years now.”

Several others echoed that sentiment, saying that Covid-era changes worsened the existing shortages. “We have one nurse doing the job of two nurses,” said another picketer, who said she had been working at Mount Sinai since 2014.“We’ve been trying to get them to improve our staffing.” She said there are 500 unfilled nursing job at the hospital, contributing to the strain on the workforce.

Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Assocation which is on strike charged that there were 700 unfilled nursing jobs at Montefiore and 500 at Mount Sinai. By Wednesday morning, talks were ongoing with Montefiore but talks with Mount Sinai had broken down.

Mount Sinai did not address the staffing issues in its statement, but said that the union had broken off negotiations on Monday even though a 19.1 pay increase was on the table. “[NYSNA] refused to accept the exact same 19.1 percent increased wage offer agreed to by eight other hospitals, including two other Mount Sinai Health System campuses.” The statement also called the nurses’ behavior “reckless” and criticized NYSNA for not accepting Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal for binding arbitration.

Union members anger was also directed towards hospital upper management, with accusations that the money saved through keeping staff numbers low went into the pockets of executives in the form of hefty bonuses.

“That money, Mount Sinai takes and gives themselves bonuses,” griped one nurse on the picket line at Mount Sinai. “The executives? During Covid, most of them were in Florida or in the Hamptons. While we were drowning, they were nowhere in sight.”

Seven other hospitals where the New York Nurses Association said they planned to walk out have instead reached last minute agreements that averted a strike before the deadline. Those settling included New York Presbyterian and Maimonides Medical Center as well as Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside. The union said that the tentative contracts were approved by rank and file workers at Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center, and BronxCare.

The hospitals that settled have agreements calling for 19.1% raises over the life of the contact with annual pay hikes of 7%, 6%, and 5%, respectively, over the next three years.

At Montefiore and the main Mount Sinai on the Upper East Side however, no agreement was reached, and the strike began Jan. 9 at 6 am. Mount Sinai has 3,600 nurses are on strike and about 3,500 are on strike at Montefiore.

The nurses who walked out are creating shortages, though several nurses stated that non union traveling nurses were being brought in to replace the striking nurses on a temporary basis.

Traveling Nurses Fill Some Shortages

The staffing shortages were being filled by traveling nurses on five day contracts, the striking union members told Straus News. That angered some of the nurses on the picket lines. “They’re bringing in scabs,” said one nurse who had been at Mount Sinai since 2014. “These travel nurses, they’re not staff. So some of they are going to be taking assignments that are not really safe.”

Members of other NYC unions also showed up to lend support. When an MTA M1 bus drove past the protestors, its driver honked in solidarity. Several other vehicles followed suit, some waving union flags of their own.

“I’m a proud union member of IBEW Local 3,” said Jimmy Giannone, a union electrician who stood on the picket line along with several of his coworkers. “I came here for solidarity. That’s what unionism is. That’s what it’s all about.”

Yesterday’s Heroes

“We were heroes only two years ago,” Warren Urquhart, a nurse in transplant and oncology units told NBC-4, referring to the height of the COVID-19 crisis. “We was on the front lines of the city when everything came to a stop. And now we need to come to a stop so they can understand how much we mean to this hospital and to the patients.

The hospitals diverted some of their non emergency patients to other hospitals and cancelled some elective care. The nurses union said it is not trying to interfere with urgent or emergency room cases. “To all of our patients, to all New Yorkers, we want to be absolutely clear: If you are sick, please do not delay getting medical care, regardless of whether we are on strike. Patients should seek hospital care immediately if they need it.” But they urged any undergoing elective surgery to hold off until the strike is settled.