In the frigid fourth week of the historic New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) strike, the union’s battle with local private hospitals for safe staffing pivoted to a rally for health coverage at The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC), where nurses protested against their loss of health insurance.
NYSNA’s strike against the private hospitals, which began on Jan. 12, appears to have stalled over the past several days. Nurses from Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian gathered at Manhattan’s Javits Center to go over their strategy after the union rejected what they termed “unserious” counteroffers from management on Feb. 2.
“The same greedy hospital executives that have left nearly 15,000 frontline nurse heroes outside in the bitter cold for more than three weeks now insult us with proposals that fail to address key issues: safe staffing and protections from workplace violence,” said NYSNA President Nancy Hagans.
Now, on top of the Javits Center negotiations, nurses at TBHC — who had initially avoided striking after reaching a tentative agreement with management — called for an emergency rally after their healthcare coverage was cut off on Jan. 31.
TBHC’s management has reportedly failed to make payments to the nurses’ healthcare and pension funds for three consecutive months.
“That’s why the nurses are outside today,” said Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forest, a nurse herself, “and they have to have their assembly member standing with them to say, ‘That’s not right! It is not okay to have NYSNA nurses who provide health care for the people in this building behind me every day, not have healthcare to protect them. Are they not humans too? Are they not people too?
“As the representative for this hospital,” she continued, “I know I’ve also fought hard for state funding to ensure that the hospital, the institution, makes good on its promise to the community, to continue to be stewards of healthcare and provide healthcare right here to the neighborhood that needs it the most. But as a nurse, I know that these workers are the people who keep the hospitals working.” She called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to help the striking nurses. “The nurses that are on this line right now are the people who are keeping this hospital progressing. They show up! They show up, and I know that the hospital has to make tough choices between payroll and benefits, but these nurses show up each and every time. So, I call on my governor and her executives and her agencies to show up for us,” she said.
TBHC has faced financial challenges for the past few years. This past November, the hospital’s CEO, Gary G. Terrinoni, told NY1 the organization would consider filing for bankruptcy. Recent reports are that the hospital’s administration and local officials are requesting $160 million in state aid from Gov. Hochul’s office to avoid closure.
The irony of the situation was not lost on Rehana Lowtan, a TBHC nurse.
“This is happening during one of the worst flu outbreaks in the city’s recorded history,” Lowtan told the crowd. “As nurses, we care for the most vulnerable workers and keep the community safe, yet we have lost our healthcare coverage. This is happening to nurses who care for this community and the whole of New York. As healthcare workers, we can’t do that when we don’t even have healthcare ourselves. If we’re not healthy, how can we care for the population?”
Council Member Lincoln Restler pointed to a systemic failure in how the state distributes aid, noting that TBHC serves a largely Medicaid and Medicare-dependent population but lacks the financial cushions of wealthier institutions.
“This is a safety net hospital that the working class of Brooklyn depends on every single day,” Restler said. “But unlike other safety net hospitals like Maimonides or One Brooklyn, which get tens of millions from the Department of Health in Albany, Brooklyn Hospital Center hasn’t gotten a penny.”
The Brooklyn Hospital Center did not respond to the Amsterdam News’ request for comment by deadline.