Northwell Health/Huntington Hospital Nurses Vote Overwhelmingly to Join NYSNA
For immediate release: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
NORTHWELL HEALTH/HUNTINGTON HOSPITAL NURSES VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY TO JOIN NYSNA
NYSNA welcomes its newest members who have been organizing since late last year and finally voted by a majority to join the union.
Huntington, N.Y. - On Nov. 20, nurses at Northwell Health/Huntington Hospital voted to join the New York State Nurses Association, the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in New York State. The 677 nurses who work at Huntington had to wait more than four months for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to schedule a union election.
Nurses at Northwell Health/Huntington Hospital have been organizing to join NYSNA since the end of last year. They put together an organizing committee and fought to build support at their facility with a signature campaign where a supermajority of nurses signed a petition authorizing NYSNA to represent them. In early June, nurses filed a petition for a union election with the NLRB. They finally held their election yesterday and won.
Huntington nurse Liliana Perez, RN, said, “We have received overwhelming support from NYSNA nurses over the last few months and are so proud to be joining them. With New York’s largest and strongest union for registered nurses behind us, we know anything is possible.”
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, BSN, RN, CCRN, said, “We are so excited to be welcoming our newest members to the union. NYSNA nurses will do anything in their power to ensure that nurses at Northwell Health/Huntington Hospital have the support and strength of the union as they go into their contract negotiations. And when we fight, we win!”
NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane, RN, CNOR, said, “NYSNA is so proud to be joined by this brave group of Huntington nurses who have shown they are organized, persistent, and ready to fight and win. They now have the full force of all NYSNA nurses across the state behind them in their fight.”
NYSNA nurses on Long Island have made major gains in recent years. NYSNA members at Northwell/ Long Island Jewish Valley Stream and Peconic Bay Medical Center ratified new contracts that improved safe staffing, wages and more in late February 2024. In late 2023, nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center and St. Charles Hospital ratified their own three-year contract that brought their salaries in line with other LI hospitals, raising wages more than 23% over the life of the contract.
Tomorrow, nurses at Northwell Health/South Shore University Hospital will hold their first contract negotiation session. Their contract expires on Feb. 28, 2025. In Feb. 2023, they voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new contract that won improvements to safe staffing standards, including expedited arbitration of staffing disputes to enforce new standards, increased pay, and improvements to retiree health benefits.
NYSNA is the voice of RNs throughout the Northwell system, representing over 3,600 members at 6 facilities throughout the system. We proudly welcome our newest members who have shown they are ready to organize and join forces with other NYSNA Northwell nurses to win great contracts that improve working conditions and quality care for our patients.
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The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country's largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.