Onondaga County NYSNA members showed up in force, and wearing red, to hear County Executive Joanne Mahoney present her “2016 State of the County” address. In December, Ms. Mahoney and county legislators voted themselves substantial pay increases but have...
NYSNA members from six different hospitals gathered on March 19 in Patchogue for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Nurses from Northwell Health’s Syosset, Southside, and Plainview Hospitals were joined by members from LIJ Valley Stream, St. Catherine of Siena and Harlem Hospital Center. It was a...
NYSNA members joined union sisters from 1199SEIU, AFSCME, and UFCW along with advocates from community health and social justice groups on March 11 for a shared celebration of women’s accomplishments, diversity, and collective strength. More than four hundred women gathered at 1199SEIU and cheered...
The spark for this summer’s “Annual Health and Wellness Fair” in the Bronx started forming in the mind of Dennis Stanberry, RN at Montefiore Moses Division, years ago when he was working in the hospital’s Emergency Department. “I was struck by the lack of basic healthcare knowledge and resources in...
Staten Island University Hospital’s proposed closure of inpatient psychiatric services drew community members to a February 29 forum hosted by NYSNA at the College of Staten Island. NYSNA Treasurer Pat Kane, RN, a Staten Island resident, and several of her NYSNA coworkers disputed SIUH...
NYSNA nurses at St. Charles Hospital braved the rain on April 8 and held an informational picket to shine a spotlight on unsafe staffing. Maureen Woodruff, RN, a 46-year veteran at the hospital and lifelong community resident told supporters, “My priority as a patient advocate is to ensure that the...
Demanding adequate and equitable federal, state and municipal funding for New York City’s public hospital system was the focus of an April 14 press conference on the steps of City Hall. NYSNA, with Save Our Safety Net Coalition (SOS-C) partners Doctors Council, SEIU, AFSCME, DC37, community health...
Buffalo members know that spring has sprung when Dyngus Day rolls in, marking the end of Lent and the arrival of Easter. The city adopted Dyngus Day ten years ago as a way of celebrating its Polish-American culture, heritage and traditions and as a means for revitalizing its neglected east side...
NYC Health + Hospitals recognized the extraordinary career of NYSNA retiree Irmatrude Grant, RN, by dedicating the pediatric division of its East New York Health Center in her honor. A plaque featuring “The Irmatrude Grant Pediatric Division” with Ms. Grant’s photograph and biography now hangs...
On the same day that NYSNA held its Annual Lobby Day, nearly 40,000 CWA and IBEW union members at Verizon went on strike after ten months of contract talks reached an impasse. Verizon has already moved 5,000 jobs overseas and is trying to move thousands of others as well as to outsource work to low...
All New Yorkers had reason to celebrate on April 4 as Governor Cuomo signed into law the country’s strongest and most comprehensive paid-family leave law and a large raise in the state’s minimum wage. Both were contained in the 2016-2017 state budget.
NYSNA member Wendy Czajak, RN, a licensed public health nurse in Onondaga County, recently wrote an op-ed, published in The New York Slant calling for a coordinated public health response to the current water crisis in Hoosick Falls, a small town 35 miles northeast of Albany, where municipal water...
With the hiring of a new Director of Nursing in January, Jacobi Medical Center’s nurses are hopeful that they will have a new ally to work with to solve the staffing crisis in the hospital’s Emergency Department.
ED staffing has been deteriorating for the past several years, and “It’s not uncommon...
NYSNA nurses from across New York gathered in the Hudson Valley on March 8, International Women’s Day, for the union’s first ever Conference for RN Advocates. The day’s panels and workshops were structured to further develop the educational, organizing, and advocacy skills that participants had...
It was a record turnout for NYSNA on Lobby Day 2016, a surge of support for safe staffing, with our members leading the way, other unions on hand and supporters cheering us on. Albany heard the message loud and clear, “Safe Staffing Saves Lives!” when 2,000 members from all corners of the state...
Hundreds of NYSNA nurses at three Central New York hospitals held informational pickets on March 18 about their ongoing struggle to win fair contracts that include provisions for safe staffing. Nurses were joined by state and local elected leaders and labor and community allies.
There is today a profound attack on public health, as access to comprehensive services for women’s health, including safe abortion care, contraception and cancer screening, are threatened. As nurses, in a profession predominantly comprised of women, we are compelled to speak out against those forces...
This month, NYSNA nurses, 1199SEIU caregivers and the doctors of the Committee of Interns and Residents were celebrated at a Women’s History Month Breakfast to honor the work of the women who saved Interfaith Medical Center.
NYSNA nurses have worked tirelessly for the past two years to protect...
Years ago, I heard a patient say to a female physician, “You are such a nice nurse!” To which the doctor, clearly perturbed, hissed, “I’m not a nurse, I’m a doctor!”
I explained to the doc that the patient was in fact complimenting her.
