More than 1,000 nurses at NYU Langone Hospital – Brooklyn called off a strike after reaching a deal with their employer that boosts pay and requires the hospital to immediately hire 100 new nurses.
The nurses, represented by the Federation of Nurses, part of United Federation of Teachers, have been negotiating a new contract with NYU Langone since December and issued a 10-day strike notice earlier this month as bargaining came to a head. The nurses planned to walk out on March 1 if NYU did not raise their pay and address what they’ve characterized as persistent understaffing across departments.
The two-year agreement, ratified by the union late Thursday, takes a strike off the table. The deal delivers a 9.25% wage increase to nurses effective March 1 and an additional 6% bump starting March 1 of next year. The agreement is set to increase staff nurses’ base pay to more than $125,000 by the end of next year, which the union says will help the hospital attract more nurses.
“We had a focus – to increase our base salary to equal or surpass what was offered by the surrounding hospitals,” Moncef Righi, a nurse and union chapter leader at the Sunset Park hospital said in a statement. Righi previously told Crain’s that nurses at NYU Langone made a minimum of $10,000 less than those at neighboring hospitals, though he declined to name the hospitals offering higher pay.
As a part of the deal, NYU Langone, which earned $14 billion last year, also agreed to resolve outstanding staffing complaints the union filed to the Department of Health by paying a combined $1 million to nurses who worked short-staffed, the union said. Nurses filed 8,000 staffing grievances to the agency over the last three years, but the union did not provide a breakdown of how many complaints the hospital agreed to resolve.
NYU Langone will also post job openings for 100 nurses starting tomorrow, according to the union.
Steve Ritea, a spokesman for NYU, said that the contract agreement “will support our nurses as they continue to drive exceptional patient care and the best outcomes for all of our patients.”
During negotiations, a reported $8 million Super Bowl commercial showcasing the Midtown-based system’s health services, drew backlash from doctors and patients. UFT president Michael Mulgrew previously criticized the health system for focusing on its public image rather than nurse staffing.
“NYU Langone has shown they don’t care about the day-to-day management of their Brooklyn hospital,” Mulgrew said. “Peel back NYU’s pretty purple veneer, and the reality is not so pretty.
