New York Nurses’ Strike Ends After 6 Weeks as Last Holdouts Approve Deal

Workers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital voted for a contract with raises and layoff protections, meaning more than 4,000 nurses will return.

Thousands of nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital have voted overwhelmingly to end their six-week strike and return to work, having won higher pay, improved staffing levels and protections against layoffs, the nurses’ union announced on Saturday evening.

The decision by the more than 4,000 nurses brings to a close the largest — and longest — nurses’ strike in New York City in decades.

Initially, the strike involved nearly 15,000 workers nurses at several major hospitals, including Montefiore Medical Center and three hospitals that are part of the Mount Sinai Health System. The action sent a shock through the affected hospitals, leading some to transfer vulnerable patients, postpone elective surgeries and hire thousands of replacement nurses from across the country at far higher wages so that their facilities could remain open.

The nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia were a holdout contingent that had continued striking even after about 10,000 nurses at the other hospitals had ratified contracts and returned to work.

Though the strike is over, the contentious relationship between the nurses’ union and hospital executives has only become more bitter during the strike, the second walkout that the nurses’ union has staged in three years. The nurses may end up walking out again in three years, when their next contract expires, just as they have the last two times.

For now, though, both sides say they are ready to put the strike behind them.

“The new contract reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play as part of our exceptional care teams,” said Angela Karafazli, a spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.

Of the nurses who voted on Friday and Saturday regarding whether to ratify the three-year deal, 93 percent were in favor and 7 percent were opposed, the union said. A week earlier, nurses at the hospital had roundly rejected an earlier proposed contract.

The New York State Nurses Association, the union representing the strikers, said in a statement that the workers had accomplished the goals they had set when the strike began.

“They achieved contracts that set industry standards and will improve care for New Yorkers,” the union said in a statement.

“This is a proud moment for our union,” Nancy Hagans, the president of the union known as NYSNA, said in a statement. “Fifteen thousand NYSNA nurses went out on strike, and finally all 15,000 will be returning to the bedside.”

The strike generated a level of rancor that surprised many across the city, including those on the picket lines. Both sides had sought to portray the other one as greedy, with nurses pointing to hospital executives who were paid more than $10 million, or even $20 million, a year, and hospitals saying that average pay for nurses was already above $150,000 and could soon surpass $200,000 if the nurses’ demands were met.

Nurses at Mount Sinai accused the hospital of engaging in union-busting tactics, including disciplining nurses in advance of the strike as retaliation for engaging in union activities, a claim the hospital denied. Mount Sinai, meanwhile, accused some nurses of engaging in sabotage.

The contract provides raises for nurses of about 12 percent over three years, just as the nurses at the other striking hospitals received. It also offers provides some protections against layoffs and, according to the union, for the first time includes safeguards regarding artificial intelligence.

One sticking point throughout negotiations related to nurse staffing levels. Nurses have long said that some hospital units in the city are chronically understaffed, leading to inferior care. In recent years, the union has won guarantees for minimum staffing levels — and the ability to enforce them. Across the city, the nurses’ union has received millions of dollars in awards for nurses who worked in chronically understaffed units.

In negotiations between the nurses' union and the hospitals, the union wanted to make it easier to bring such cases to arbitrators, while the hospitals wanted to roll back those protections.

In the end, the union said, the nurses won improved staffing standards.

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