By Hank Russell
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) held a virtual press conference on January 7 to provide an update on the negotiations between Northwell Health and the nurses’ union. While progress was made with the safety net hospitals, negotiations with the Northwell hospitals in Plainview, Syosset and Huntington have stalled.
NYNSA President Nancy Hagans said it is possible that the Long Island nurses will go on strike on January 12. Erin Gray, a nurse at Northwell Huntington and a NYSNA member, said, “Nurses have reached this point with Northwell Health because we take patient care very seriously.”
As previously reported on Long Island Life & Politics, nurses, elected officials and union heads held a rally in front of Northwell’s New Hyde Park headquarters 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.
On January 2, the nurses represented by NYSNA presented Northwell with its 10-day strike notice. “We have been bargaining with Northwell for months and have not seen the progress we’ve wanted to see,” Gray said.
Among their demands are higher pay, better benefits and working conditions and increased staffing to lessen the nurses’ patient load. “Every day, we are being asked to do more with less,” Gray said, adding that the hospital system’s demand that nurses take on more patients “compromises care.”
Gray said nurses are seeing up to 12 patients at a time, which “put[s] safe patient care and our licenses at risk … Northwell is not struggling financially, and we know hospital executives could invest in safe patient care.”
Hagans said the Long Island nurses — just like their New York City counterparts — “are united for safe patient care. We continue to bargain in hopes of avoiding a strike. But management … has not shown that same commitment to us. … They are not willing to come to the table and negotiate with us.”
LILP reached out to Northwell for a response. They said they were “disappointed” that they are “at this crossroads with NYSNA.” However, “we remain hopeful we can reach [an] agreement on a new contract before a strike begins. … As always, we remain fully committed to negotiating a fair and sustainable contract that supports our nurses and maintains the high-quality of care our community deserves.”
A Northwell spokesperson said that, in the event of a strike, the hospitals “will remain fully operational” and put a contingency plan in place “to ensure our hospitals continue to deliver outstanding patient care.” That includes hiring temporary nurses from “a New York State-accredited healthcare service agency.”
“Based on steps we have taken, we do not anticipate potential disruption to the care we are providing for patients,” the spokesperson said.