After six weeks on the picket lines, the final contingent of striking nurses in New York City has announced a tentative settlement with their employer, the nurses' union said on Friday. If ratified, the agreement would mark the end of what the union called the largest nurses work stoppage in the city's history.
The contract up for a vote this weekend by roughly 4,200 NewYork-Presbyterian nurses would raise salaries by more than 12% across a three-year span, preserve health benefits and introduce specific protections concerning the deployment of artificial intelligence, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).
The labor action began on January 12, when a total of 15,000 nurses employed by three major health systems walked out seeking higher pay and improvements to workplace safety. The departures produced staffing shortages and led New York Governor Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency - a move intended to allow out-of-state and foreign medical workers to fill roles while nurses were on strike.
Two-thirds of the nurses involved in the initial walkout returned to their posts on February 14 after reaching separate agreements with Montefiore and Mount Sinai hospitals. That left the NewYork-Presbyterian group as the last major cohort negotiating a settlement.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, commenting on the NewYork-Presbyterian deal, said, "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."
A NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson, Angela Karafazli, issued a statement expressing satisfaction with the mediated outcome, saying, "We are pleased to have reached a tentative settlement with NYSNA, through the mediator, that reflects our tremendous respect for our nurses."
The proposed settlement will be decided by the membership of the affected bargaining unit this weekend. If approved, it would conclude the six-week stoppage that had put pressure on hospital staffing and required contingency measures to maintain patient services during the dispute.
Contextual notes
The negotiating points highlighted by the union and hospital include multi-year wage increases, the protection of existing health benefits and new contractual language intended to govern how artificial intelligence is used within the system. Detailed terms beyond the broad outlines announced by NYSNA and NewYork-Presbyterian were not provided in the union's public statement.