NYSNA Holds Day of Action as Public Sector Union Nurses' Contract Expires

NYSNA Health+Hospitals/Mayorals nurses held a system-wide day of action including a rally and speakout along with candlelight vigils yesterday to mark the expiration of their contract at 11 city-run hospitals. Public sector nurses, who staff New York City’s public hospitals and mayorals agencies, are demanding that the city live up to its agreement on pay parity with the private sector to stop the bleed of nurses from public hospitals that has created a crisis of understaffing that harms NYC’s most vulnerable patients.

NYC’s public sector nurses are mobilizing on the heels of a strike victory for private sector nurses, who won groundbreaking contracts that improved staffing and included 19.9 percent pay increases. With new raises for private sector nurses, the pay disparity for newly graduated nurses in the public sector will be over $19,000 per year. NYC’s public health facilities serve mostly Black and brown and immigrant New Yorkers and are staffed by mostly Black and brown and immigrant nurses. Pay parity is an issue of health and racial equity for New York City. Follow the nurses' fight on Twitter!