The agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital will still need to be ratified by rank-and-file members.
Nurses on the picket line outside a NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights on Thursday.Credit…
After a strike that lasted nearly six weeks, nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital said early Friday that they had reached a tentative agreement with one of New York City’s largest medical centers.
If the deal holds, it would end one of the largest — and longest — strikes by nurses in recent decades. On Jan. 12, nearly 15,000 nurses at three major New York health systems walked out, citing a range of grievances, from nurse staffing levels to episodes of workplace violence.
More than 10,000 nurses at four hospitals — Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and two other hospitals in the Mount Sinai Health System — reached deals with their employers last week and have since returned to work.
But more than 4,000 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia held out for a better deal and stayed on strike.
“This has been a long, hard fight, but we are proud of what we achieved,” said Beth Loudin, a nurse and local union leader who led the union’s bargaining committee at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. “With the strength of our nurses and the support of our community and allies, we showed the hospital that nurses will not compromise on our patients’ care.”
A spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, Angela Karafazli, confirmed that a tentative deal had been reached. The specific provisions of the deal remain unclear.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative settlement with NYSNA, through the mediator, that reflects our tremendous respect for our nurses,” Ms. Karafazli said in a statement sent early Friday morning, referring to the New York State Nurses Association, the union representing the health care workers.
The nurses at the hospital are expected to vote on whether to ratify the deal in the coming days.
Nurses who work in the Mount Sinai Health System and at Montefiore had voted overwhelmingly last week in favor of a deal, according to the union.
The lengthy duration of the strike came as a surprise to many, including many of those on the picket line.
When the nurses last walked off the job in early 2023, the hospitals quickly agreed to their demands, which focused on staffing levels. That strike lasted three days. But the nurses had more leverage then, and the hospitals were caught unprepared, with few executives suspecting that the nurses would walk out.
The latest strike also revealed divisions within the nurses’ union. Last week, Ms. Loudin and other nurses sought disciplinary action against the union’s leadership, claiming that the leadership had tried to force an earlier deal on the nurses.
“For a month and a half, through some of the harshest weather this city has seen in years, nurses at NYP showed this city that they won’t make any compromises to patient care,” Nancy Hagans, the president of the nurses’ union, said in a statement Friday morning, referring to nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian.
“They stood in the cold, snow, ice, and wind, along with their union siblings, fighting back management’s attempts to cut corners on care and secured contracts that improve enforceable safe staffing ratios, improve protections from workplace violence, and maintain health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs for frontline nurses,” she said.
Nurses have long said that many hospital units across the city are chronically understaffed, leading to inferior care. The 2023 strike resulted in improved nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and payouts if hospitals fell below those minimums.
Three years ago, hospitals agreed to pay extra wages to nurses if hospitals left units insufficiently staffed. That has resulted in significant payouts. Nurses at three hospitals in the Mount Sinai system were awarded more than $6 million from arbitrators since the start of 2024 after providing evidence that units didn’t have enough staff, according to the union.
Hospitals have chafed at these awards, which became a sticking point in negotiations.
