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7,000 Nurses Go on Strike at Two of NYC’s Largest Hospitals

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After a weekend of talks failed to produce agreements for new contracts, more than 7,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City are going on strike to demand better pay and working conditions.

The walkouts began at 6 a.m. Monday morning. The New York State Nurses Association, representing 42,000 nurses, said that chronic understaffing prompted the strike. Hiring has not been sufficient to cover the nursing shortages created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nancy Hagans, president of the NYSNA, said the nurses “do not take striking lightly, but that’s what’s going to happen if our bosses give us no other choice.”  The failure of hospital administrators to hire nurses left behind hundreds of unfilled slots, leaving current nurses to pick up the workload.  

“Our No. 1 issue is a crisis of staffing. It is an issue that our employers have ignored.” 

Despite having 760 open nursing positions, Montefiore Medical Center did not fill any of them. According to Ms. Hagan, some nurses tend to up to 20 patients at a time. This puts tremendous pressure on workers, especially in the emergency room, which is “so overcrowded that patients are admitted in beds in the hallway instead of hospital rooms.”

The union desires adequate enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with safe staffing levels. They are also requesting pay increases commensurate with inflation rates. Sunday night’s negotiation session failed to produce an agreement. Monday has no scheduled bargaining sessions, but the nurses are eager to return to the table.

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Monday’s strike put a strain on the NYC healthcare system, with hospitals having to relocate patients, reroute ambulances, and reduce other services. Hospitals were already feeling the impact of the citywide tripledemic of RSV, influenza and COVID-19. Because of nursing shortages, hospitals brought in temporary staff, including doctors, to continue operations.

Mario Cilento, the president of the New York State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, showed support for the nurses in a statement released on Monday.

“It is time for the hospitals to treat these nurses fairly, with the dignity and respect they deserve, to ensure nurses can get back to serving their communities by providing superior care to their patients.”

 Gov. Kathy Hochul called for binding arbitration on Sunday night to postpone the strike, but the union rejected the offer.

“Gov. Hochul should listen to front-line COVID-19 nurse heroes and respect our federally protected labor and collective bargaining rights. Nurses don’t want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients.”

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 The union leaders at Montefiore Medical Center turned down management’s offer of a 19.1% compounded wage increase over three years and a commitment to add more than 170 new nursing jobs. Mount Sinai administrators released a statement addressing the latest negotiations, during which union leaders walked out at 1 a.m. on Monday morning.

 “We remain committed to seamless and compassionate care, recognizing that the union leadership’s decision will spark fear and uncertainty across our community. Our first priority is the safety of our patients. We’re prepared to minimize disruption, and we encourage Mount Sinai nurses to continue providing the world-class care they’re known for.”

 The pandemic has left front-line medical workers with a distrust of hospital management. In recent years, nurses have walked out in states across the country as well as worldwide. Nurses in the United Kingdom went on strike last month for the first time in seven decades.

 Nurses and doctors still remember the dangerous working conditions when COVID-19 first swept through the city in 2020, inundating hospitals with patients and killing more than 22,000 residents. Hospitals were inadequately prepared, and there was insufficient personal protective equipment for medical staff.

Foreseeing the impending strike, both Montefiore and Mount Sinai have rushed to make preparations in recent days. Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement released Sunday night that the city is in contact with the hospital networks. Still, he acknowledged that some parts of the city’s hospitals would likely be overburdened.

 “In the event of a strike, our system will be prepared to meet the challenges. If there is a nurses’ strike, hospitals in certain areas may experience impacts to operations, including possible delayed or limited service. We encourage all New Yorkers to call 911 only for emergencies, and be prepared to seek an alternate facility in case their preferred hospital is impacted.”

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LA County Ambulance Crews Told Not To Transport Patients With ‘Little Chance Of Survival’ 

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Los Angeles County has been a hot spot for Covid-19 within the past six months, and now, it’s the worst it’s ever been. About one in five residents in the county are now testing positive for Covid-19, meaning within one month the county doubled its number of infections; around 40,000 cases on November 30th to more than 800,000 on January 2nd. 

The amount of new infections appearing is causing hospitals to be completely overwhelmed. In fact, all intensive care units throughout the region are now at maximum capacity. 7,600 residents of LA county are currently hospitalized and battling the virus, and 21% of those residents are in the ICU.

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With no hospital beds available, ambulance crews in LA county have been given guidance to not transport patients with little chance of survival, as the patients who are transported often have to wait hours before a bed can be made available. Hospital supervisor Hilda Solis recently spoke with the media about the current situation, calling it a “human disaster.” 

“Hospitals are declaring internal disasters and having to open church gyms to serve as hospital units, we have people dying from this virus every 15 minutes.” 

Officials are also extremely worried because they know it’s about to get so much worse with new cases appearing from the holidays due to an excess in travel that still occurred despite all of the warnings against it. 

“The increases in cases are likely to continue for weeks to come as a result of holiday and New Year’s Eve parties and returning travelers. We’re likely to experience the worst conditions in January that we’ve faced the entire pandemic, and that’s hard to imagine,” said Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer.

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Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) specifically directed ambulance crews not to transport patients with little to no chance of survival due to the need to conserve oxygen supplies. Los Angeles hospitals are at a capacity they never thought possible in the past. The county EMS said patients whose hearts have stopped despite efforts of resuscitation should no longer be transported to hospitals. 

“Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) shall not be transported [if]return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field,” the agency said in a memo sent to ambulance workers.

If there are no signs of breathing or a pulse, EMS will continue to perform resuscitation for at least 20 minutes, and if the patient becomes stabilized after that period of resuscitation, they would be taken to the hospital. If a patient is declared dead at the scene or no pulse is able to be restored, paramedics will no longer be able to transport the body to the hospital. 

Some EMT’s told the press that even when they are able to bring patients into the hospitals they can be waiting between two to four hours almost every time. While these ambulances and crew members are waiting at hospitals, there are fewer healthcare employees and resources available to respond to other 911 calls. For now, no further lockdown efforts have been made to curb this spread in LA.