More than 900 nurses from Northwell Health South Shore University Hospital will strike if they do not reach an agreement with the address before next Monday, March 17.
Jenna Plaza, vice president of the nursing negotiation unit, said the nurses, who are unionized under the Association of Nurses of the State of New York (Nysna), delivered a strike notice to the hospital on March 4 after negotiating with the address since November. More than 99% of nurses voted in favor of authorizing a strike.
One of the issues that promoted the vote to authorize a strike was an unfair labor practice that the union presented against Northwell Health on February 25. In a statement, the union alleged that the Administration had interfered with the Federal Labor Law and participated in reprisals, interrogations and surveillance instead of focusing on reaching a fair agreement.
Barbara Osborn, Vice President of Public Relations of Northwell Health South Shore University Hospital, said the hospital is optimistic that he will reach an agreement with the nurses.
“We are still optimistic that an agreement can be reached and we will continue to negotiate in good faith and we hope that negotiations continue to be positive and productive,” Osborn said in a statement. “South Shore University Hospital is disappointed with Nysna’s decision to issue a strike notice, but as always, our goal is to achieve a fair contract.”
Osborn added that in case of a strike, South Shore University Hospital will be in full functioning and will continue to provide patient care.
The two parties currently have no scheduled negotiation session between now and March 17, although Plaza said the union has tried to schedule sessions. The previous contract of the union expired on February 28.
Plaza said that, although there were some obstacles during the negotiation process, he felt that the parties had been advancing towards a right contract to a recent negotiation session in which Northwell asked the union to withdraw their personnel proposals, something that described as a change of 180 degrees in terms of progress towards an agreement.
The personnel proposal essentially asks the hospital to ensure that the proportion of nurses by patients is always consistent with state guidelines, especially when nurses are in breaks, something that is not always the case now, according to Plaza.
“We are fighting for the proportions to remember contractually and are something that we can hold the hospital when those proportions are not fulfilled,” said Plaza.
Other important problems for nurses include protections against AI and virtual nursing and advances in their pensions, which according to Plaza had not increased since 2007.
«It is extremely important that nurses can have a plan B when we retire. “We take care of the community,” he said. “We are only asking for a comparable increase to the increases that the world has experienced.”
“We, as South Shore nurses, are committed to negotiating to get a fair contract and avoid a strike,” Plaza said. “A strike is not certainly what I want for our community. It is not what I want for our patients who expect us to attend them in their most urgent needs. But we are ready to strike if Northwell is not willing to reach an agreement.”
