Over 10,000 Nurses Return to Work After Agreement with Montefiore and Mount Sinai

Over 10,000 nurses from the Montefiore and Mount Sinai hospital networks resumed their duties on Valentine's Day, a month after they went on strike, marking New York City's biggest and most extended nursing walkout.

Nursing staff at the two medical facilitiesapproved the new agreements earlier this week.

The latest three-year agreements feature a 12% salary increase over three years, stabilized health care expenses, enhanced staff conditions, and stronger safeguards against workplace violence.

The deal marks a significant advancement, yet the strike remains ongoing for over 4,200 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian following their rejection of a preliminary agreement.

"Starting late yesterday (2/10), NYSNA presented the mediators' detailed proposal to a vote among the NewYork-Presbyterian nurses who are represented by NYSNA. The voting has now finished, and we are disappointed that our nurses did not approve the mediators' proposal, which we had agreed to on 2/8, and which NYSNA leadership supported," said NewYork-Presbyterian in a statement.

Some nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian had expressed opposition to the vote, claiming they were being influenced by the union to support a contract that the local bargaining committee had turned down.

While nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai are marking the approval of their new agreement, they continue to back union nurses who are still on strike at NewYork-Presbyterian.

"We encourage people to visit the picket lines, show your support, they are seeking grocery donations, food contributions, funds for the strike, and direct assistance, they have been on strike for five weeks now, so we need to go to their picket line and offer as much support as possible," nurse Dania Munoz said to Eyewitness News.

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