By Hank Russell
After a series of marathon sessions, nurses at Northwell/Plainview, Northwell/Huntington and Northwell/Syosset reached a tentative agreement with the hospital group, thereby averting a strike.
According to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the 1,000-plus nurses withdrew their strike notice and tentatively agreed to a new contract that protects safe patient care. The Plainview nurses agreed not to strike on January 9 and the Huntington and Syosset nurses in the early morning hours of January 10.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, NYNSA called for Northwell to meet the following demands before the January 12 strike deadline: increased pay and benefits, safe patient care, better working conditions and increased staffing to lessen the nurses’ patient load. During a virtual press conference on January 8, Northwell/Huntington nurse Erin Gray said nurses are seeing up to 12 patients at a time.
NYSNA is scheduled to hold a virtual press conference today at 11 a.m.
Long Island Life & Politics will continue to monitor the situation.