Read our feature article on the history of healthcare workers’ struggles here.
On February 21, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) announced that nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) voted to ratify the tentative agreement reached by the union and the healthcare monopoly the previous day, ending the largest and longest nurse strike in New York City’s history.
The NYP nurses, along with nurses at Montefiore Bronx and Mount Sinai, went on strike for several weeks against three of the city’s biggest healthcare monopolies beginning January 12. Nurses demanded better healthcare coverage, safe staffing, and job security.
Nurses braved record freezing temperatures and organized several marches throughout the city for their demands and against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terror.
The ratification vote took place over a week after 3,099 of the 4,200 striking NYP nurses overwhelmingly rejected a previous tentative agreement (TA) pushed by union executives on February 11 in an attempt to put down the strike. That TA had already been rejected by the nurse’s bargaining committee for not including provisions around safe staffing and job security. Nurses successfully pushed to continue the strike and protested in front of NYSNA headquarters following the executives’ undemocratic move.
According to the NYSNA press release, the new TA addresses nurses’ demands including provisions around staffing, health benefits, and protections from workplace violence and ICE.
Some nurses have expressed mixed feelings about the TA. One nurse told The Worker, “It’s not revolutionary. It falls short on job security but we did make progress on staffing.” Some nurses on social media also expressed dissatisfaction with the TA, with one stating that the contract prohibits mediation for staffing grievances for 6 months.
According to the union, 93% of nurses voted to ratify the more recent TA, although vote counts have not been published. The union similarly did not disclose vote counts after TAs were ratified by nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefiore on February 11, with some nurses telling The Worker that the contracts were “not the best deal” and that they fell short of addressing their demands.
At Montefiore, the union has already prepared to file charges against the monopoly. According to the Bronx Times, nurses returning from the picket line faced retaliation and worse conditions, including increased surveillance, banning union material, work speedups, and breakdowns in workflow, with one nurse saying, “The fight has not stopped.”
Image: NYSNA nurses picketing NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP). Credit: The Worker
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