Next week, nearly 16,000 nurses at five private hospitals across the city could walk off the job in what would be the largest health care labor strike in New York since the 47-day hospital strike in 1984.
Many of the nurses, members of the New York State Nurses Association union, are immigrants. They say they’re fighting against hospitals’ attempts to cut employee healthcare, as well as management’s refusal to ensure safe staffing and their refusal to agree to workplace violence protections.
Should the nurses strike, it would affect staffing at Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian, and Montefiore hospitals in Manhattan and the Bronx. Some of the hospitals, including Mount Sinai, have already started preparing for a nurses’ strike by bringing in outside, non-union staff, Gothamist earlier reported…