NEW YORK, CMC – As the New York City nurses’ strike enters its fourth day on Thursday, New York City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, a Haitian-born registered nurse, and Caribbean American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke have shown strong support for nearly 15,000 nurses, who have taken to the picket lines demanding higher wages and better working conditions, among other benefits.
“I am deeply disappointed that it has come to this. Nurses belong at the bedside, not on a picket line,” Narcisse, the representative for the 46th Council District in Brooklyn, New York, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). “A strike of this magnitude reflects a failure to address long-standing issues that nurses have raised again and again. It feels like only yesterday that nurses were rightly recognized as the heroes they are during the COVID-19 pandemic,” added the chair of the New York City Council’s Committee on Hospitals. “Today, too many of those same nurses are being forced onto a picket line simply to be heard and treated with respect.”
“This not only hurts nurses. It affects patients across our city and the many hospital staff who depend on strong, collaborative partnerships with nurses to deliver safe, effective care,” Narcisse continued. “As a nurse myself, I stand firmly with my colleagues. They are asking for safe staffing, fair pay, and working conditions that allow them to care for patients properly.”
She said these are basic needs that go directly to patient safety and worker well-being.
“I urge all parties to return to the negotiating table and reach a fair resolution as quickly as possible,” Narcisse said. “Our nurses have earned a contract that respects their work and allows them to get back to doing what they do best, caring for patients.
Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, said she stood “behind the 15,000 New York City nurses who took to the streets with reasonable demands on their compensation, benefits, and workplace protections.
“Our nurses will always be the bedrock of our healthcare system, and they deserve a fair contract that recognizes their contributions and respects their instrumental role in keeping New Yorkers safe and healthy,” the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus told CMC. “Anything less is simply unacceptable.”
After negotiations between five major hospitals in the city and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the union representing the nurses, failed to reach an agreement on a new contract by Monday’s deadline, nearly 15,000 nurses walked off the job at five privately-run hospitals.
They are Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West, and New York-Presbyterian in Manhattan, and Montefiore Einstein in the Bronx.
In anticipation of the strike, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday declared a state of emergency, saying it could affect critical care for thousands of patients. Negotiations are expected to resume Thursday evening at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
“In every one of our city’s darkest periods, nurses showed up to work. Their value is not negotiable, and their worth is not up for debate,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani, only two weeks on the job, in joining picketers outside New York-Presbyterian in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan.
“They show up, and all they are asking for in return is dignity, respect, and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve,” he added. “They should settle for nothing less.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who joined the nurses on the picket line on Monday, said: “If these hospitals have money to hire scabs, then they’ve got money and resources to address the needs of these nurses. “I urge management to negotiate in good faith, to get back to the table, to negotiate a real deal, to respect these nurses,” she added.
NYSNA said in a statement that “after months of bargaining, management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections, forcing nearly 15,000 nurses out on the largest nurse strike in New York City history.
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