NYC Public Hospital Nurses Win Historic Contract with Pay Parity and Safe Staffing
NYSNA nurses have won a new contract with NYC Health+Hospitals (H+H)/ mayoral agencies and the City of New York. The contract package includes an award for pay parity and safe staffing, several agreements to improve nurse retention, and the creation of a citywide nurse float pool to improve staffing and reduce the overreliance on temporary travel nurse contracts. The five-and-a-half-year contract comes after a month of expedited mediation and then impasse arbitration. Now the package will be shared with NYSNA members and an endorsement vote will be held between now and Saturday.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said: “When we fight, we win. NYSNA NYC public sector nurses have always been on the forefront of the fight for social justice and health equity for our patients, and they demonstrated throughout this contract campaign they were ready to do whatever it takes to win respect for nurses and patients. I could not be prouder to be part of righting a historic wrong and winning pay parity between public- and private-sector nurses.”
Approximately 8,000 NYSNA nurses at NYC Health+Hospitals facilities and Mayoral agencies had been in negotiations for a new contract since Feb. 14, 2023. Their contract expired on March 2, 2023. Throughout their campaign, they emphasized that pay equity was a matter of health equity and racial justice for public sector patients and the mostly women of color who work in the H+H/Mayorals health system. Joined by elected officials and community allies, nurses rallied, spoke out and staged sit-in protests to end the costly crisis of understaffing and high turnover and to win a fair contract. They exposed the outrageous nurse vacancy rate caused by low pay and the unacceptable cost of filling the gaps with expensive temp travel nurse contracts, which were estimated to cost $589.9 million in 2022. NYSNA nurses believe this new contract will help save and strengthen the city’s public health system. Read more here!