About 10,000 registered nurses in New York City have threatened to strike as they call for staffing changes at Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian systems, according to The New York Times.
Six things to know:
1. Negotiations are ongoing between the New York State Nurses Association and the New York City Hospital Alliance.
2. Staffing is a key sticking point in bargaining. Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian systems have not agreed to union-supported ratios or other limits on nurses' workloads, the Times reports. An alliance spokesperson previously said the three health systems want more staffing flexibility and experienced nurses to set up that staffing.
3. The union claims hospitals will not hire enough bedside caregivers, forcing nurses to care for too many patients at once.
The alliance argues that Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian systems have added 2,000 nurses over a four-year period, according to the report.
4. Nurses planned a strike for April 2. However, it was postponed after negotiators for the hospitals offered $50 million to hire more nurses, the Times reports.
5. Nurses reportedly said the latest offer from the alliance was not adequate to provide proper care in all hospital areas. Karine Raymond, a nurse in the cardiac catheterization lab at a Montefiore hospital in the Bronx, N.Y., and a negotiator for the New York State Nurses Association, told the Times Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian systems each needs at least 300 to 400 more nurses.
6. Both sides still have not reached a labor deal. No new strike date has been set.
Read the full Times report here.
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