NEW YORK (PIX11) — Talks between the New York City union representing nearly 15,000 striking nurses and the three hospital systems they’re striking against were expected to resume Thursday after days with no negotiations between the two sides.
The New York State Nurses Association, or NYSNA, announced on Wednesday it “will resume bargaining on Thursday after being urged back to the negotiating table by Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani.”
The negotiations will also be the first time that representatives from all three hospital systems — Montefiore, NewYork-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai (which negotiates under two separate contracts) — will meet together to face NYSNA negotiators. In previous bargaining sessions, nurses’ union representatives met with each hospital’s leaders separately, or two systems’ leaders at a time.
On Wednesday night, Beth Loudin, a NewYork Presbyterian nurse on the negotiating committee, said she’s “very hopeful” about the return to the bargaining table.
The nurses union says that its members chose to walk out to ensure that a new contract doesn’t scale back any health insurance packages that nurses have, and that they get increases in on-site safety at their hospitals, as well as higher pay.
Through Wednesday, spokespeople from the three hospital systems have called the nurses’ demands “unreasonable,” but on Wednesday evening, one of the hospitals, New York-Presbyterian, issued a statement confirming its presence in negotiations:
“We intend to resume bargaining. We are working through the mediator to schedule the next session.”
Wednesday was the tenth day of the nurses’ strike, the biggest in New York state history. The last nurses’ strike in New York City was in 2023. It lasted three days.
