NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Negotiations were continuing Friday to try to stop thousands of nurses from walking off the job at a dozen private-sector hospitals in New York City.
If agreements are not reached, as many as 20,000 nurses could go on strike on Jan. 12 "in what would be the biggest nurse strike in New York City history," the New York State Nurses Association said Friday.
The union said nurses delivered a 10-day strike notices to management at the 12 hospitals, which include major health centers like Maimonides Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center. A full list can be found here.
Danash Forbes, a longtime nurse at one of the hospitals, Mount Sinai West, said she’s optimistic.
"Absolutely. We’re here for a contract. We’re here for a fair contract,” she said. “We're negotiating in good faith.”
The nurses' contract expired Dec. 31. Among the issues they want resolved is safety in the workplace; they want metal detectors and more security staff.
“I'm sure when you walk into your building you expect a certain amount of security, and that's what we're asking for as well,” Forbes said. “You know, it's an open building, anyone can come in.”
“They’ve been bitten, they've been hit with things,” she said of the nurses. “They have slashes on their heads.”
The nurses said they’re also fighting to make sure their own health care is improved and secured.
“Nurses are not infallible to getting sick. We are human just like our patients,” Forbes said. “We get sick, we need to see the doctors, we end up in hospitals just as much.”
Another major sticking point is the number of nurses to handle patients, with Forbes saying the current ratio “doesn’t add up.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai said the health system is working in good faith to reach an agreement and that the nurses' union "is showing once again it is willing to use patients as bargaining chips this time while pushing billions of dollars in economic demands."
Here is the full Mount Sinai statement: "After only a day of working with a mediator at one of our hospitals, NYSNA is yet again threatening to force nurses to walk away from patients' bedsides – this time while continuing to insist on increasing average nurse pay by $100,000. NYSNA has acknowledged that federal funding cuts will cost New York hospitals $8 billion and 35,000 jobs, but just three years after its last strike the union is showing once again it is willing to use patients as bargaining chips this time while pushing billions of dollars in economic demands that would compromise the financial health of our entire system and threaten the financial stability of hospitals across New York City. We will continue to work in good faith to reach an agreement before the strike, however after months of preparation, our system is ready for every outcome so we can maintain high quality patient care and continue to serve our patients and communities across New York."