Mount Sinai nurses approve new contract ending strike at its NYC hospitals

NEW YORK (AP) — Mount Sinai nurses have approved a new contract, ending a monthlong walkout at its hospitals in New York City.

The hospital system said Wednesday that an overwhelming majority of its unionized nurses on strike voted to ratify new three-year pacts.

Brendan Carr, CEO of Mount Sinai, said its nurses will begin reporting back to work Saturday.

He urged hospital staff to come together with empathy and respect and a “shared culture” as its unionized nurses return to work starting with the morning shift Saturday.

“The past several weeks have been challenging, emotional, frustrating, and exhausting in different ways for all of us,” Carr said in a letter to staff. “I want to remind us all that health care is built on compassion, and that compassion must extend not only to our patients, but also to one another.”

The union and spokespersons for Montefiore and NewYork Presbyterian — the other two systems where nurses are on strike — didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The union has said tentative deals reached with those hospital systems call for pay raises of more than 12% over three years.

They also maintain nurses’ health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs and include new protections against workplace violence, including specific protections for transgender and immigrant nurses and patients, the union said.

The pacts even include new safeguards against artificial intelligence in hospitals for the first time, according to the union.

Nurses walked off the job Jan. 12 and have been picketing in front of some of the largest and most prestigious privately-run hospitals in the city, just as the region endured some of the most frigid temperatures seen in years.

Nurses said staffing and safety were among their top issues in contract talks.

They complained their patient loads are unmanageable and sought better security measures in hospitals, particularly after two recentviolent incidents.

The new contracts would address those concerns by increasing staffing levels and providing new protections against workplace violence, the union said.

The hospitals have insisted operations at the affected hospitals were running smoothly during the strike, with organ transplants, cardiac surgeries and other complex procedures largely uninterrupted.

They brought on thousands of temporary nurses to fill in staffing gaps, and canceled scheduled surgeries, transferred some patients and discharged others in the days ahead of the strike.

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