New York (AFP) – More than 10,000 striking New York nurses reached a deal with their hospital employers that will increase salaries by more than 12 percent over three years, the nursing union said Monday. On strike since January 12, the 10,500 nurses at New York’s Montefiore and Mount Sinai private hospital groups will vote on ratifying the deal and return to work this week, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said in a statement.
As well as pay increases, the new deal contains protections against the use of AI in the workplace, as well as for trans and immigrant nurses and patients. Some 4,200 nurses on strike at New York-Presbyterian are not covered by the deal and will stay on the picket line. The association had said it was the largest strike by nurses in the city’s history.
The hospital groups involved had discharged or transferred a number of patients, canceled some surgeries, and drafted in temporary staff in response to the industrial action. NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said that “for four weeks, nearly 15,000 NYSNA members held the line in the cold and in the snow for safe patient care.”
“Now, nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai systems are heading back to the bedside with our heads held high after winning fair tentative contracts that maintain enforceable safe staffing ratios, improve protections from workplace violence, and maintain health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs for frontline nurses.”
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