NY Nurses Reach Deal, End Strike

Facts

• On Thursday, more than 7k New York City nurses from Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan returned to work after reaching an agreement for "enforceable safe staffing ratios," according to their union, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).
• After almost four days on strike, the NYSNA and Montefiore — with Mount Sinai announcing a similar deal — agreed to a 19.1% pay increase, a bolstering of over 170 nursing positions, fully-funded healthcare for eligible nurses, and lifetime health coverage for eligible retirees.
• It also includes a pay increase for teaching nurses and charge nurses of $5 per hour over standard wages, an increase in registered nurses and nurse practitioners in the emergency departments, and a continued increase in nurse education infrastructure in emergency departments.
• Within the three-year contract, Montefiore also agreed to financial penalties for failing to comply with the new staffing levels, as well as community health improvements and nurse-student partnerships to recruit local Bronx nurses to stay as union nurses at the hospital for the long run.
• During the strike, the New York Fire Dept. had to divert ambulances from emergency rooms where nurses walked out, with nurses from at least one outpatient clinic redirected to work at hospitals and Montefiore physicians taking on duties typically performed by nursing assistants.
• The strike followed a significant increase in threats of strikes or walk-offs across the country since the pandemic. The median annual salary of a registered nurse in 2021 was $77.6k, and upwards of 100k nurses left the profession from the year prior.

Sources: Al Jazeera, FOX News, Reuters, and Washington Post.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by Common Dreams. Though on paper hospitals like Montefiore and Mount Sinai are non-profits, in reality, they run themselves like corporations and give their CEOs multi-million-dollar salaries. In the face of money like that, all these nurses were asking for was a slight bump in their salaries and the number of staff members to ensure their patients were being served by the highest quality caregivers. Thankfully, they won and can now go back to helping those in need.
• Right narrative, as provided by Townhall. Unions continue to lead industries down paths of destruction, and now people’s health is being put in danger due to union demands causing thousands of nurses to go on strike. New York has some of the highest union membership rates in the country which made the dispute unsurprising, yet still life-threateningly disruptive for New Yorkers.

Predictions