NEW YORK — The New York State Nurses Association reached tentative agreements on new contracts with the Montefiore and Mount Sinai health systems in the wee hours of Monday morning.
The deals preserve zero-premium health insurance coverage for nurses, impose new staffing levels and implement a series of wage increases, starting with a 4 percent raise March 1, according to records reviewed by POLITICO.
Other new contract provisions would provide nurses with paid time off for court proceedings related to workplace violence and erect guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence in clinical settings, the records show.
It is the first substantial breakthrough in a historic strike by nearly 15,000 nurses, which has dragged on for over four weeks at private hospitals across Manhattan and the Bronx.
About 10,500 unionized nurses at the covered Montefiore and Mount Sinai facilities must vote this week to ratify the deals before they end their strike and return to work. If ratified, the nurses will return to work Saturday.
The union said it would release more details on the agreements once they are approved. Spokespeople for Mount Sinai and Montefiore had no immediate comment.
“Nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai systems are heading back to the bedside with our heads held high after winning fair tentative contracts that maintain enforceable safe staffing ratios, improve protections from workplace violence, and maintain health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs for frontline nurses,” union President Nancy Hagans said in a statement Monday.
Approximately 4,200 striking nurses employed by New York-Presbyterian have yet to reach a similar compromise.
A New York-Presbyterian spokesperson said the health system agreed to a “comprehensive” proposal presented by mediators early Sunday, which included the same wage increases as at Mount Sinai and Montefiore and would preserve nurses’ health benefits and pension while increasing staffing levels.
But New York-Presbyterian’s union representatives did not sign on, saying staffing remains the key sticking point.