By Chantal Da Silva -
NBC News
Thousands of nurses at two of New York City's largest hospitals are preparing to strike starting Monday morning after negotiations over pay and staff failed over the weekend.
Up to 3,500 nurses from the Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center are expected to take part in a walkout starting at 6 a.m. Monday, along with about 3,600 nurses from Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital, The Associated Press reported.
[New guidelines for treating childhood obesity include drugs and surgery for the first time]
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the largest union representing registered nurses in the state, announced that nurses from two facilities in the Mount Sinai health care system had come to a tentative agreement on the contracts on Sunday, but negotiations were continuing at its main hospital
“Nurses don't want to go on strike,” the union said in a statement late on Sunday.
"The bosses have pushed us into strike action by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staff harming our patients."
Why don't they make vaccines that don't hurt?
Kids put Dr. Shapiro to the test
Dec 20, 202203:23
Montefiore and Mount Sinai were among the hospitals whose union contracts had expired.
The New York State Nurses Association had threatened to call a strike at all affected hospitals at the same time, but other health facilities reached agreements with the union before the deadline.
[The new wave of COVID-19 in China threatens the US medical supply chain]
New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a statement Sunday urged the two pending hospitals and the union to take their dispute to binding arbitration.
“Strikes at New York Presbyterian, Richmond University Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Center and Flushing Hospital Medical Center have been averted,” he declared.
"However, there are outstanding issues in Montefiore and Mount Sinai, and I now request binding arbitration so that all parties can quickly reach a solution," he added.
The governor said that, in the meantime, the New York State Department of Health would continue to enforce staffing requirements at both hospitals “to maintain the delivery of essential health care services to the community and to protect the health and safety from the patients".
The New York State, Montefiore and Mount Sinai Nurses Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Noticias Telemundo sister network NBC News.
[The Promising FDA-Approved Alzheimer's Treatment and Doubts About Its Effectiveness]
In its statement Sunday, the union said Hochul “should listen to the nurses who heroically worked on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic and respect our federally protected labor and collective bargaining rights.”
The Montefiore Administration indicated in a statement that it was willing to let an arbitrator resolve the agreement "as a means to reach an equitable result," according to The Associated Press.
In a statement Sunday, Mount Sinai said the NYSNA had rescinded its strike notice at the two centers where tentative agreements had been reached.
A medic transports a patient at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, on April 1, 2020. Mary Altaffer / AP
The agreement included a 19.1% salary increase over three years, identical to that already accepted by the union at six other hospitals and officially ratified by nurses at New York-Presbyterian and Maimonides Medical Center.
“This exact salary proposal has also been offered to the NYSNA for nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital.
We continue to negotiate in good faith with NYSNA and hope they will accept our offer, which would provide an additional $51,000 in cash compensation for each nurse, plus $19,500 in medical benefits, over three years," the statement said.
“We hope they will likewise rescind their strike notice at Mount Sinai Hospital,” they added.
[A new test based on a strand of hair seeks to detect autism in children before symptoms appear]
The hospital announced that patients would be contacted by text message, email and/or by phone if their appointments or procedures were affected by the strike scheduled for Monday.