NEW YORK (WPIX) — Hospital executives and the New York State Nurses Association leaders are meeting again on Friday after an initial bargaining session on Thursday night.
Members of NYSNA who attended Thursday night’s nearly five-hour meeting with management from NewYork Presbyterian told NewsNation affiliate PIX 11 News that they once again presented their proposals for increasing staffing.
When asked about the mood in the room, nurse Beth Laudon said, “I’d say we’re intense, we’re ready to rock, we want to get a deal done, we want to have the contract negotiated and finished in a fair way.”
A federal mediator was present for the NYSNA talks on Thursday. Mediators will also be present at bargaining sessions on Friday between the nurses’ union and management at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore.
Higher pay is one of the issues at stake in the labor dispute. In addition, the nurses’ union says it’s seeking increased security at hospitals and higher numbers of staff members.
Nancy Hagans, a spokesperson for NYSNA, said that even though Mount Sinai’s top executives will be part of Friday’s meeting with the mediator and other hospitals’ top brass, a separate division of Mount Sinai — its Morningside and West campuses — negotiates a separate nurses’ contract.
That division, so far, has not agreed to meet with the union.
Higher pay is one of the issues at stake in the labor dispute. In addition, the nurses’ union says it’s seeking increased security at hospitals and higher numbers of staff members.
Friday is the fifth day of the strike that includes 15,000 nurses at the five private hospitals.