Union and New York hospital system reach a tentative deal to end the city’s largest nursing strike
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s largest nursing strike in decades is poised to end after more than 4,000 nurses seeking better staffing and job security at NewYork-Presbyterian reached a tentative contract agreement with management early Friday.
The New York State Nurses Association said union negotiators and administrators at the last of three major hospital systems hit by the more than monthlong walkout approved a tentative deal but did not disclose specific details.
The proposal now goes to union members for a vote. If ratified, nurses would return to work as early as next week.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative settlement with NYSNA, through the mediator, that reflects our tremendous respect for our nurses—the settlement is still subject to ratification,” NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson Angela Karafazli said in a statement.
Union officials said in a statement Friday that the nurses will return to work next week if members vote to ratify.
The roughly 4,200 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian had been the last remaining on the picket line during bitterly cold temperatures in what their union said was the largest and longest walkout of nurses in the city’s history.
Some 10,500 nurses in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals ratified new three-year contracts on Feb. 11, but NewYork-Presbyterian nurses rejected the proposals.
The union said the Montefiore and Mount Sinai deals included pay raises of more than 12% over three years.
They also maintained nurses’ health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs and included new protections against workplace violence, particularly for transgender and immigrant nurses and patients.
The union said the pacts even included new safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence in hospitals for the first time.
The strike began Jan. 12 at three of the city’s largest and most prestigious private health systems.
Hospitals hired legions of temporary nurses to fill in staffing gaps during a demanding flu season, raising concerns among some of the hospital system’s most vulnerable patients and their families.
During a bumpy, contentious negotiation, hospitals complained the union’s demands were unreasonable and exorbitant. Nurses countered that top hospital executives make millions of dollars a year while saddling nurses with unmanageable workloads.
An arbitrator this month awarded nearly $400,000 to some nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital for having to work while short-staffed in 2023 and 2024, the union said, heralding the decision as evidence of the problems that prompted the strike. NewYork-Presbyterian responded that “safe staffing is always a priority” and that it has hired hundreds of nurses in the last three years.
The strike did not affect every hospital in the NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and Montefiore systems, and nurses at city-run hospitals did not participate. Other private hospitals also reached last-minute deals with the union.