New York’s largest nurse strike in decades is coming to an end as the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), representing over 4,000 nurses, reached a tentative three-year contract agreement with the management of the New York Presbyterian Hospital on early Friday morning.
The union announced that the new agreement includes a wage increase of over 12% over three years, improvements in staffing levels, retention of medical benefits, as well as for the first time, restrictions on the hospital’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) and enhanced workplace safety measures. Union members will vote on the agreement this weekend, and if approved, nurses will return to their work stations next week.
The strike began on January 12th, initially affecting three major private hospital systems including the Mount Sinai Health System, involving over ten thousand nurses. Of these, 10,500 nurses from the Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center approved the new contract on February 11th.
The negotiation process was tense at times. The hospitals criticized the union for demanding too much, while nurses pointed out that top executives earned millions of dollars annually while frontline staff bore the brunt of heavy workloads.
During the strike, hospitals hired a large number of temporary nurses to fill in the gaps, coinciding with the peak of flu season, which caused fear among some patients and their families.
Fortunately, the strike did not impact all hospitals within the aforementioned healthcare systems, and the city’s public hospital system did not participate in the strike.
If the interim agreement is approved, it signals the end of this labor dispute that has lasted for over a month, bringing a phase of stability to the city’s healthcare system.