NYC nurses strike ends after deal reached with hospitals

The nurses strike that left four NYC hospitals scrambling for coverage after 7,000 nurses walked off the job has ended, the nurses union announced early Thursday morning.

The walkout began on Monday causing a massive staffing blow at Mount Sinai Hospitals main campus in Manhattan and three locations of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, officials said.

The New York State Nurses Association confirmed that the strike ended in historic victory with tentative deals reached at both hospitals.

This is a historic victory for New York City nurses and for nurses across the country, union president Nancy Hagans said in a statement. NYSNA nurses have done the impossible, saving lives night and day, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and now weve again shown that nothing is impossible for nurse heroes.

Through our unity and by putting it all on the line, we won enforceable safe staffing ratios at both Montefiore and Mount Sinai where nurses went on strike for patient care, Hagans said. Today, we can return to work with our heads held high, knowing that our victory means safer care for our patients and more sustainable jobs for our profession.

Nurses were set to walk back into Mount Sinai at 7 a.m. Thursday, after winning wall-to-wall safe staffing ratios for all inpatient units, the union said.

The strike is over and we have an agreement, the Mount Sinai Health System tweeted. Thank you, Mount Sinai team, for your unwavering dedication to world-class patient care.

At Montefiore, the nurses won new safe staffing ratios in the Emergency Department, the union said.

Nurses also won community health improvements and nurse-student partnerships to recruit local Bronx nurses to stay as union nurses at Montefiore for the long run, the union said.

Montefiore announced that its nurses will also return at 7 a.m. Thursday, and all surgeries, procedures and outpatient appointments set for Thursday and after will proceed as scheduled.

We are pleased to announce that Montefiore Medical Center has reached a tentative agreement with the leadership of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) on a new collective bargaining agreement, the hospital said in a statement. Our tireless focus remained on ensuring Montefiore nurses have the best possible working environment, with significant wage and benefit enhancements, and we worked hard to secure this outcome with NYSNA.

Overnight, nurses at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center also reached a tentative deal and withdrew their 10-day strike notice, the union said.

Hundreds of health care professionals were seen picketing outside Mount Sinai at the height of the strike.

Placards called for better patient care, a fair contract for patients and nurses and demanded, Dont silence our voice on staffing!

A travel nurse working at the hospital as a result of the strike told The Post exclusively that the strike had crippled the hospital as skeleton crews juggled an overwhelming workload.

God, its not like they are saying it is its worse, she said.

If I were a family member, Id move my family to a hospital thats not on strike because its difficult, and its not safe, the nurse added.

I am a confident nurse. I have a lot of experience in the ICU. But Ive never felt like this before. We are literally doing all we can to keep them alive.

Patient Leah Stern, 19, of New Rochelle, was at Montefiores campus at 111 E. 210th St. on Tuesday for her daily platelet transfusion to treat a bleeding disorder and told The Post she had to wait nearly six hours or triple the usual time to get the procedure.

I had to wait for hours, said Stern, who had an eye swollen shut and a bandage wrapped around her head from a recent fall because of her medical condition.

And I didnt even finish all my transfusions, she lamented. I have to do it at home now.

Prior to the strike, other hospitals in the city had recently reached tentative pacts with their nurses, who are repped by the same union.