On Heels of NYC Nurse Strike Contract Wins for Safe Staffing, Nearly 9000 NYC H+H/Mayorals Nurses with Contract Expiring in March Say "We are Nurses and We Demand Health Equity"

To commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, hundreds of NYSNA nurses from New York City Health+Hospitals (NYC H+H)/Mayorals held a speak-out and march on NYC H+H corporate headquarters with the message: We are nurses and we demand health equity.

NYC H+H/Mayorals nurses care for NYC’s most vulnerable patients and have been essential in saving lives throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They care for a disproportionate number of uninsured and underinsured patients. However, NYC’s public hospitals are the most understaffed and under-resourced and its nurses the most underpaid in New York City.

NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said: "Our nurses in the public sector are under-resourced, understaffed, and underpaid. They do the same life-saving work as nurses in the private sector, yet they are paid so much less—and the disparity in pay is only growing. We are all nurses. We demand health equity for our patients and communities, and we demand pay equity for the hardworking NYC Health+Hospitals and Mayorals nurses."

With a contract expiring on March 2, NYC H+H/Mayorals nurses are demanding that the City negotiate a fair contract with pay equity for nurses and health equity for patients and communities. Read more here and watch a stream of the event of NYSNA's Facebook.