A hospital in Westchester County is facing a nurses strike with COVID-19 cases expected to surge during the holiday season.
The strike at Montefiore New Rochelle is set to begin at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Hospital management says nurses are putting the community at risk. The nurses staged a protest Monday ahead of the planned strike.
They have been without a contract for nearly two years and were negotiating as late as yesterday with no progress.The nurses’ union – the New York State Nurses Association – is demanding the hospital hire more nurses and improve safe staffing requirements.
“This place was the epicenter, the beginning of COVID,” said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, with the New York State Nurses Association. “We have nurses who’ve died. We have people who’ve died, who’ve worked here for lack of PPE, for improper care, improper staffing and training. That’s what this strike is about.”
This comes at a crucial time when the need for hospital beds is increasing in New Rochelle, where the 7-day rolling average of COVID cases is now at 6.19 percent.
The hospital says it has been negotiating with the nurses for 18 months.
They have offered nurses pay raises of more than 7 percent, tuition reimbursement and funding for their union pension.
Marcos Crespo, the hospital’s senior vice president of community affairs, took no questions at a press conference Monday.
He simply read a statement detailing what the hospital will do if nurses walk off the job Tuesday morning, as expected, on a two-day strike.”Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital will remain open but will enact contingency plans, including relocating patients to other facilities to ensure their safety,” he said.
Nurses and hospital administrators returned to the bargaining table Monday, but sources say they made little progress.
“They want the power to dictate staffing assignments and hand out plum positions to their friends,” Crespo said. “While Montefiore believes the decisions on how to treat patients and make these assignments rest not with any one group alone, but with the entire team caring for the patient.”
The war of words didn’t seem to be helping.
“Who do you believe?” nurse Kathy Santoiemma said. “A bunch of suits who never came out of their offices during COVID? Or do you believe us, who were there day and night, who prayed with our patients, who took care of our patients day and night?”
The strike is expected to take place 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
ABC7NY
