For Immediate Release
Contact: Mark Genovese, 518.782.9400, ext. 353
BRONX, Dec. 16, 2009 – Without a contract for nearly a year, more than 1,000 registered nurses held a two-hour protest in front of Montefiore Medical Center’s Moses and Weiler division campuses on a chilly Dec. 15.
NYSNA’s most recent four-year contract for the 2,400 RNs expired in Jan 15, 2009. Negotiations have been underway since October 2008.
The nurses have been trying to negotiate a new agreement that will help the facility maintain a stable RN workforce at the patients’ bedside. But management is apparently interested in only the bottom line. It hasn’t made a firm commitment to improving nurse-to-patient ratios, nor to cease sending nurses to unfamiliar areas.
In contract talks, management has been demanding the RNs fund any cost-of-living increases by paying more for their benefits or somehow "subsidize" increased staffing numbers. It is offering salary increases that would put the medical center in a non-competitive position in the RN job market and demanding givebacks in health coverage.
Montefiore nurses believe these proposed cuts will cause many to consider early retirement and make the short staffing at the facility even worse.
The New York State Nurses Association is the voice for nursing in the Empire State. With more than 37,000 members, it is the state's largest union and professional association for registered nurses. It supports nurses and nursing practice through education, research, legislative advocacy, and collective bargaining.
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