A tentative agreement is on the table for new contracts for members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) after the union announced on Feb. 9 that it had reached a resolution on a number of issues.
If NYSNA members vote to accept the agreements this week, the historic nurses’ strike, which began on Jan. 12, will finally end for some 15,000 nurses. At AmNews presstime, members were voting on whether to ratify the contracts and could return to work this weekend.
The nurses’ union said that after a series of marathon negotiating sessions, it reached tentative agreements on its most pressing issues: maintaining enforceable safe staffing standards and increasing the number of nurses to enhance patient care; protecting health benefits from drastic cuts threatened by hospitals; ensuring safety from workplace violence; safeguarding the rights of immigrant and trans patients and nurses; and securing protections against artificial intelligence in their contracts for the first time.
The agreements include a 12% salary increase over three years to help recruit and retain nurses, efforts to oppose efforts to weaken healthcare and staffing, and a commitment to return all nurses to work after ratification.
NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane said, “Nurses sacrificed their own pay and healthcare while on strike to defend patient care for all of New York. We helped galvanize a movement for worker and healthcare justice that reached beyond New York City.”
The agreement could settle the dispute between some 10,500 NYSNA members and New York City-area privately run hospitals like Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside and West. A spokesperson for Montefiore confirmed a tentative agreement but declined to provide details until the ratification process concludes.
NYSNA reached a separate tentative contract agreement for its 4,200 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian on Feb. 10, and ratification votes on that deal are also currently taking place.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans emphasized the union’s democratic process in a statement this week. “As a democratic, member-led union that responds to its members, we are moving forward with a vote on tentative contracts at all four hospitals with the goal of returning all nurses to work as soon as possible,” Hagans said.
NYSNA expects to be able to announce the results of the ratification vote for all hospital contracts on Wednesday evening, Feb. 11, after voting concludes. If the contracts are accepted, NYSNA members say they expect to return to work by Saturday, Feb. 14.