By Hank Russell
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) is calling on Northwell Health System to offer a “fair” contract to the nurses at the three hospitals in Plainview, Syosset and Huntington. Their contracts are set to expire at the end of the year.
Nurses from Long Island convened in front of Northwell’s New Hyde Park headquarters, where they were joined by labor unions and elected officials on December 12. On its website, the NYNSA said the 1,000-plus nurses who work at Northwell/Plainview, Northwell/Syosset and Northwell/Huntington “have been bargaining for a new union contract for months” that entails fair pay and retaining the current nursing staff while hiring new nurses to the staff.
“[I]nstead of negotiating fair contracts that help hire and retain nurses for safe staffing, Northwell management has been showing complete disrespect at the bargaining table,” the NYSNA said. Northwell’s concessions would “roll back important gains nurses have fought for and could erode quality care on Long Island,” the organization said.
Local elected officials have also chimed in. Nassau County Legislative Deputy Minority Leader Arnold Drucker (D-Plainview) was in attendance at the rally.
“Nurses are the backbone of America’s healthcare system, and although they are on the front lines of delivering life-saving care each and every day, their needs are far too often overlooked,” Drucker said. “These healthcare heroes deserve safe workplaces and adequate staffing so they can continue providing the top-notch, diligent and compassionate care that every patient deserves. Nurses deserve compensation that is commensurate with the life-saving care that they provide to patients each and every day, and most of all, they deserve our respect and appreciation. That is why I will always stand with the nurses of Nassau County and our region.”
Nassau County Legislator-elect Cyntia Nuñez (D-Valley Stream) sent a letter to Northwell management calling for the hospital system to work with the nurses on the contract negotiations.
“The core demand in these negotiations — enforceable minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios — is a non-negotiable public health imperative,” Nuñez wrote. “This is about guaranteeing our patients receive the quality care they deserve, and it is about retaining the highly skilled nurses who are the backbone of our healthcare system.”
Nuñez said she has gotten “reports from the nurses” suggesting that management “has been causing delays at the bargaining table” and called on Northwell to “fully engage in this process to show proper respect for its nurses and the patients they care for.”
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to Northwell for comment.
“We fully respect our team members’ right to rally,” Northwell said in a statement. “Patients and the community can be assured this is not a strike, and normal hospital operations will continue seamlessly across the Northwell Health system. Providing uninterrupted, superior care remains our top priority. Northwell Health’s hospitals continue to engage in constructive, good-faith negotiations with NYSNA. It is our paramount goal to achieve a fair contract that both supports our team and upholds the high-quality care our patients and community deserve.”