(NEW YORK CITY) – New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) Nurses recently held an informational picket outside of Mount Sinai’s New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in lower Manhattan to call on Mount Sinai to settle a fair contract with safe staffing, pay parity and a plan to keep the facility open for care.

Nurses were joined by elected leaders and community allies, including City Council Member Gale Brewer. 

Mount Sinai is one of the wealthiest hospitals in New York City - yet is failing to invest in care for lower Manhattan - and they’ve been threatening to close Eye and Ear for years without any plan to serve downtown patients – or the thousands of patients who travel to New York City every year to receive gender-affirming care at the facility.

The specialty services of Eye and Ear have been part of the fabric of New York City for more than 100 years.

Combined with Mount Sinai’s reckless plan to close Beth Israel Hospital, the potential closure of Eye and Ear could leave lower Manhattan patients without essential health care services, NYSNA Officials said. 

NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said: “In 2023, NYSNA Nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside won groundbreaking contracts, but Mount Sinai hasn’t agreed to the same fair pay or safe staffing improvements at Eye and Ear that we’ve already won for Nurses and patients at their other hospitals.  It’s time for that to change.” 

With the future of Sinai Eye and Ear in limbo, unsafe staffing is a growing problem and when Nurses leave, hospital administration refuses to hire more Nurses, the Union said.

Understaffing strains overworked Nurses and can compromise patient care, it adds.

That’s why Nurses are coming together to speak out for a fair contract and to protect patient care.

Local Bargaining Unit President and Sinai Eye and Ear Nurse John Paul Montemayor said: “Mount Sinai has pushed services, pushed Doctors and is now pushing Nurses away from Sinai Eye and Ear, creating an uncertain future for specialty care in the downtown community.  They’ve told us that we’re lesser Nurses than the other Nurses who work in the Mount Sinai system, but we don’t accept that.  Sinai Eye and Ear Nurses deserve respect, fair pay, safe staffing and a fair contract that guarantees a future for us and our patients.”

To Continue Reading This Labor News Story, Go To: Mount Sinai’s New York Eye and Ear Infirmary Nurses Picketed for Safe Staffing and to Keep Facility Open for Care | New York State Nurses Association (nysna.org)