As nursing contract negotiations continue in New York City, close to 12,000 nurses say they’re prepared to start striking unless agreements can be reached across seven different city hospitals.  

Those hospitals include Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Maimonides, BronxCare, Richmond University Medical Center and Flushing Hospital Medical Center.  

The New York State Nursing Association is fighting for what they say is a fair contract, and say they’ll continue to make their case at another meeting on Thursday to negotiate with hospitals.  

“We are losing nurses within the city of New York just because of the pay, flat out,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “This ends up making the nurses in the hospital system have to do more shifts, they are tired, and there are less of them… the standard of care goes down significantly in these hospitals without these nurses.” 

Joe Solmonese, senior vice president at Montefiore, put out a statement saying: 

"New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) leadership at Montefiore refuses to come to an agreement despite a generous offer that includes an 18% wage increase, fully funded health care for life, and a significant increase in registered nurses in the emergency departments, among other benefits," said Joe Solmonese, Senior Vice President at Montefiore.” 

While a tentative agreement was reached with New York-Presbyterian, walkouts for nurses are set to start on Monday if a deal is not reached at the remaining hospitals, according to the union.  

“Certainly, we hope Montefiore and BronxCare will have a contingency plan if they advert to a strike,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. “But that is the very, very last option. We do not want anyone to strike.”