New York
CNN
—
Negotiations aimed at averting a nurses strike at two major New York City hospitals went past a midnight deadline with a walk-out by 7,000 nurses looming as soon as 6 am ET Monday.
Tentative deals were reached in recent days covering nurses at seven hospitals, including two hospitals that reached deals late Sunday evening. But Mount Sinai hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore in the Bronx, were still facing the possibility of a strike as the 11:59 pm ET deadline came and went without a deal.
The New York State Nurses Association plans to walk out at 6 am ET if a deal isn’t reached.
The tentative deals reached at other hospitals provide nurses with a combined 19.1% in pay increases over the three-year life of the agreements and includes promises by management to increase staffing to address the union’s major complaint of nurses being overworked and facing burnout.
Mount Sinai and Montefiore said they had agreed to meet the wage demands of the union, but the union claimed that staffing levels remain the sticking point in reaching deals at the two remaining hospitals.