NEW YORK — Nurses at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, members of the New York State Nurses Association, approved a new, improved contract Feb. 21 after 41 days on strike. The vote was 93% in favor and 7% opposed.
“It was definitely worth the strike,” pediatric emergency nurse Maria Tsoi told the Militant on the picket line before the results of the vote were announced. “We won a lot the hospital was trying to take from us. There are no cuts to the medical and pension plans,” she said, “and we finally won language that allows the union to enforce agreed-upon staffing ratios, although at lower levels than we need.
“I’ve always been a strong union supporter,” Tsoi said. But after being on strike together, “many more of my co-workers are pro-union. And the newer nurses have a much better sense of why unions are important.”
The 4,200 nurses at New York-Presbyterian, along with more than 10,000 at the Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospital systems, had gone on strike Jan. 12. Nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefiore had approved contracts the previous week after beating back boss efforts to cut medical and pension benefits and to gut the staffing enforcement language they won in a strike in 2023. The nurses at New York-Presbyterian weren’t part of that strike and hadn’t won that language. When the hospital refused to put it in this time, they voted down a proposed contract overwhelmingly and remained on strike for another week, making important gains.