Bronx nurses, veterans rally against VA staffing cuts as private hospital strike deadline nears
Nurses and veterans rallied Thursday outside the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in Kingsbridge.
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As a strike deadline looms for thousands of city nurses demanding a fair contract, a separate health care fight is unfolding in the Bronx—this one over proposed federal cuts to Veterans Affairs staffing.
Nurses and veterans rallied Thursday outside the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in Kingsbridge, sounding the alarm over plans by the Trump administration to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs nationwide. Advocates say more than 100 positions could be eliminated at the Bronx VA alone, raising concerns about longer wait times and reduced care for veterans.
“We are doing acrobatics just to deliver the basics,” one VA nurse told News 12.
Army veteran Jose Vasquez, executive director of Common Defense, said the VA saved his life. Vasquez was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and says VA health care workers helped get him into surgery within a month.
“As I stand before you, I am cancer-free,” Vasquez said.
Health care workers warn that staffing cuts could make those outcomes far less common for future patients.
At the same time, a separate dispute is escalating at private hospitals across the city. Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center and BronxCare Health System say negotiations over safety protocols, staffing levels and space constraints have stalled.
Nurse practitioner Johnaira Florian says conditions inside emergency departments are already stretched thin.
“We’re asking for stronger safety protocols and more operating space, and we’re not getting much traction,” Florian said.
At least seven hospitals have already reached agreements, but if Montefiore does not finalize a contract by Monday, nurses there could join roughly 16,000 other health care workers—including those at BronxCare—in what would be the largest nursing strike in New York City’s recorded history.
Nurses stress the strike threat is about patient care, not pay alone.
“It’s all for the benefit of us being able to care for patients in the best way possible,” Florian said.
While the VA staffing cuts and private hospital contract talks are separate fights, health care workers say both highlight the same concern: without adequate staffing and resources, patient care is at risk
