(NewsNation) — Nearly 15,000 nurses in New York City are walking the picket line this week as part of the largest such strike in city history.
The walkout comes after negotiations over staffing, pay and pensions failed to end in a contract for nurses working in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospital systems.
Simone Way, a nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside, told “Morning in America” she and her colleagues “have to do what we have to do,” though she hates being apart from patients.
“Our businesses, our bosses, are not willing to come to the table currently and to iron this out,” Way said. “And if they’re not willing to come to the table, we are forced to stand up for ourselves, stand up for our rights, and walk that picket line.”
Way has been at Mount Sinai for 35 years. She told NewsNation she became a nurse “to heal, to provide empathy, to provide care for my patients.”
“I did not go into nursing to fight our bosses in regards to our own health benefits and pension benefits,” Way added.
The affected private, nonprofit hospitals remain open and have hired temporary nurses to fill staffing gaps.
“I know that my personal feeling is that nobody can care for our patients and our community the way we can,” Way told NewsNation. “But we appreciate those nurses for coming in and doing the best job that they think they can do.”
Because the strike, signed off by the New York State Nurses Association union, is open-ended, Way said she and others will stay on the picket line as long as it takes for change to come.
“When they are ready to come back to the table and present us with something realistic that we might be able to accept, we are ready to come back,” Way said.