Nurses at Montefiore Hospital in New Rochelle are demanding
to return to work after some were locked out following a strike.
“The second
surge of COVID is coming, and we
need to work together. Please stop the madness and settle
this please,” says Montefiore ER
Nurse Peggy Siconan.
The
New York State Nurses Association says when the nurses ended their two-day
strike last Thursday, they were planning to get back to work.
They
say Montefiore then changed their schedules, leaving about 33 nurses unable to
return to their jobs.
Montefiore
management says 167 of the 200 nurses who went on strike are already back at
work, but nurses say they are still understaffed.
“Our
co-workers are desperate for more staff, even more disturbing Montefiore is
cohorting COVID and non-COVID patients together on one unit disregarding basic
infection control practices,” says nurse
Kathy Santoiemma.
The
nurses union says it plans to return
to the bargaining table with Montefiore leadership on Thursday.
News 12 is told nurses are frustrated by the prolonged
negotiations and feel as though they’re being retaliated against for rallying
and making their voices heard.
“It feels like
our administration is not hearing us, we don't know what else to do,” says
nurse Shalar Matthews. “We’ve been in negotiations for two years. Nothing has been done.”
Officials at Montefiore issued a statement saying in part,
“NYSNA Leadership operated irresponsibly by walking out on the New Rochelle
Community. Their misleading tactics seek attention instead of results and is
precisely the reasons all nurses are not back at work today.”
However, nurses
say they’re calling on their employer to do the right thing. “It just makes me sad that I have to
walk out of here and think to myself, OK
there weren't enough of us, so did we do the right thing? We need staffing,”
says nurse Dianne Pierpont.