Nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn reached a brand new contract settlement and narrowly prevented a strike final week.
File picture courtesy of NYU Langone
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Nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn obtained an instantaneous elevate on Saturday after their union and hospital directors reached a last-minute contract settlement and narrowly prevented a strike.
The Federation of Nurses/UFT ratified the two-year contract late on Feb. 27, about 24 hours earlier than the previous settlement was set to run out. On Feb. 18, nurses — who stated they have been underpaid and their models understaffed — warned that they might strike beginning March 1 if an settlement was not reached in time.
“Our nurses are the backbone of NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn,” stated UFT president Michael Mulgrew, in a press release. “The nurses forced the hospital to start paying the competitive salaries they deserve, and they forced management to drop the excuses and acknowledge that it is their responsibility to correctly staff the hospital.”
Nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn final month, as contract negotiations continued. File picture courtesy of Jonathan Fickies/UFT
In line with UFT, the roughly 1,000 unionized nurses on the hospital have been granted a 9.25% elevate on March 1, with a further 6% elevate set to take impact subsequent March. By the top of the contract, workers nurses may have a base annual pay of $125,282, and nurses who keep on the identical unit and shift for a minimum of 18 months shall be eligible for a one-time retention bonus of a minimum of $3,750.
The settlement additionally maintained the nurses’ premium-free medical health insurance and ensured an “employer-paid” pension.
Throughout contract negotiations, NYU Langone-Brooklyn nurses stated they have been underpaid in comparison with nurses at different hospitals within the space. Yusif Rahman, an RN within the hospital’s surgical intensive care unit, advised Brooklyn Paper final month that he struggled to pay fundamental residing bills on his wage.
“We had a focus — to increase our base salary to equal or surpass what was offered by the surrounding hospitals,” stated nurse and union chapter chief Moncef Righi, in a press release. “We were determined to make this happen, for fairness and to be in a better position to recruit and retain nurses.”
The contract additionally required NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to submit job listings for 100 full-time nurses by March 1 to “alleviate the chronic understaffing” on the hospital.
Nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn issued a strike warning on Feb. 18. Picture courtesy of UFT/Federation of Nurses
NYU Langone-Brooklyn has been topic to hundreds of short-staffing complaints in the previous couple of years, and has reportedly repeatedly violated nurse-patient ratios required by each state legislation and the union contract.
Along with hiring new nurses, the hospital pays a mixed $1 million to nurses who have been affected by understaffed shifts, in line with UFT.
“The contract gives our nurses the respect they deserve by raising salaries and requiring NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to hire the nurses they need to safely staff their hospital,” stated Anne Goldman, head of the Federation of Nurses/ UFT, in a press release. “This opens the door to improving staffing, recruitment and retention and provides the economic equity our nurses have long deserved.”
NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn didn’t instantly return Brooklyn Paper’s request for remark.
