Nurses at eight private hospitals represented by the New York State Nurses Association initiated a strike on Friday that would begin on Jan. 9.
deadline in the hopes of reaching agreements.
The strike notices went out after rank and file nurses among the 12 private hospitals that the union represents in New York City oveabout 14,000 out of 17,000 nurses in the private sector hospitals completed their strike authorization votes, with about 99 percent voting in support. Since then two thousand more members have voted in favor of strike authorization.
Though New York’s nursing unions have called for increased staffing for decades, nursing shortages have become a more widespread problem in the COVID era as hospitals have struggled to recruit and retain a nursing workforce. Unions say that higher nurse-per-patient ratios are a key factor to improving working conditions in hospitals and retaining nursing jobs.
There are signs that the nursing shortage in the state, however, is severe. A recent report by the Healthcare Association of New York State and the Greater New York Hospital Association, found that 100% of the state’s hospitals reported nursing shortages they cannot fill.