NYC Nurses Issue Strike Notice to 12 Hospitals

The New York State Nurses Association delivered 10-day strike notices Jan. 2 to 12 hospitals in New York City.

Here are seven things to know:

1.If agreements are not reached,as many as 20,000 nurses could strike Jan. 12. This would mark the largest nurse strike in city history, according to a Jan.2 union news release.

2. The notices followed the expiration of union contracts on Dec. 31. Nurses voted Dec.22 to authorize a strike.

3. The union is seeking contracts that guarantee healthcare benefits, safe staffing standards and protections from workplace violence.

“Management is refusing to guarantee our healthcare benefits and trying to roll back the safe staffing standards we fought for and won,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, BSN, RN, said in the release. “We have been bargaining for months, but hospitals have not done nearly enough to settle fair contracts that protect patient care. Striking is always a last resort; however, nurses will not stop until we win contracts that deliver patient and nurse safety. The future of care in this city is far too critically important to compromise on our values as nurses.”

4. The following hospitals in New York City received strike notices:

• the Brooklyn Hospital Center
• Flushing Hospital Medical Center
• Interfaith Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health
• Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health
• Maimonides Medical Center
• Montefiore Medical Center
• Mount sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University medical Center
• Richmond University Medical Center
• Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

5. Union members also voted to authorize a strike three years ago, with about 7,000 nurses at two hospitals walking off the job in January 2023.The union represents 42,000 members across New York and is affiliated with National Nurses united, which has more than