'Historic Victory': After 3 Days on Strike, New York Nurses Win Deal With Hospitals

https://www.commondreams.org/news/new-york-nurses-contract-victory

'Historic Victory': After 3 Days on Strike, New York Nurses Win Deal With Hospitals

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."

JAKE JOHNSON
Jan 12, 2023

New York City nurses and two major hospitals reached a tentative agreement on Thursday that the healthcare workers' union celebrated as a "historic victory" after three days of striking for a fair contract.

The more than 7,000 striking nurses agreed to return to work Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center, privately owned hospitals whose management previously refused to accept the nurses' central demand for safer staffing requirements—pushing the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) to leverage the power of collective action.

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While Montefiore and Mount Sinai are technically nonprofits, they frequently act like large corporations—with massive investments on Wall Street and overseas, and providers sidelined from essential care decisionmaking," The Lever's Matthew Cunningham-Cook reported earlier this week. "These nonprofit hospitals also boast huge executive salaries. Mount Sinai CEO Kenneth Davis made $5.6 million in 2019, the last year for which complete tax records are available. Montefiore CEO Philip Ozuah made $7.4 million in 2020. Montefiore disclosed providing an unnamed executive (or executives) with a chauffeur and first-class airfare in 2020."

"In filings with the IRS, Mount Sinai disclosed that 15 executives made more than $1 million annually in 2019," Cunningham-Cook added. "Montefiore disclosed ten in 2020, with all making more than $1.5 million." On the picket line with striking nurses on Monday, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said he was "tired of living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, but we never have enough money for our workers." "If CEOs can double their pay," Bowman declared, "we can give workers a fair contract."