The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximillian Alvarez and I know that you guys may have just listened to our latest episode with healthcare workers on strike at Kaiser Permanente over on the West Coast, but we’ve got another urgent strike update episode for y’all today on another critical healthcare worker strike that was actually mentioned in that last episode, the longest sustained strike in the history of New York City as Claudia, it is Rete and Ben f Frankenberg report in the city. New York Presbyterian nurses rejected a tentative agreement by an overwhelming margin Wednesday voting to extend their strike now 31 days running against the hospital system.

Their union, the New York State Nurses Association said the unfair labor practice strike and bargaining will continue. Out of approximately 4,200 New York Presbyterian nurses who are eligible to cast ballots, 3099 voted to reject the deal and 867 voted to approve it at Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai, Morningside and West and Mount Fiore nurses voted to approve their contracts Wednesday evening by margin of 87%, 96% and 85% respectively, and will return to work this weekend. A New York Presbyterian spokesperson said the hospital was disappointed that our nurses did not ratify the mediator’s proposal, which we accepted on February 8th and N-Y-S-N-A leadership endorsed the spokesperson. Angela Carley said The hospital is willing to honor the rejected proposal for reconsideration. Nancy Hagens, the president of N-Y-S-N-A, called on the hospital to agree to a fair contract and bring all of our nurses back to work. Now, nurses at the three hospital systems have been on strike since January 12th, trying to secure stronger nurse to patient ratios, claiming that staffing shortages put there and their patient’s wellbeing at risk.

This is Max talking. You guys may be noticing a theme here, especially compared to the last episode. Okay, back to the quote, the dramatic development unfolded hours. After more than 50 nurses delivered a petition to the New York State Nurses Association headquarters demanding a formal disciplinary investigation into top union. Leadership over members claims that leaders are forcing a vote on a tentative agreement with New York Presbyterian. That rank and file representatives already rejected at the bargaining table. Beth Loudon, a neonatal nurse and member of the executive committee at New York Presbyterian said top union leadership informed her it was moving ahead with a vote Tuesday afternoon days after she and the committee originally rejected it. I can’t even call it a memorandum of agreement because there’s no signature on it. Said Loudon, this is a rush job to get a vote out because it’s in alignment with the other hospitals. It was very jarring. Alright guys, so to break this all down, I am grateful to be joined on the show today by Beth Loudon herself. Beth, thank you so much for joining me. With everything going on, I really do appreciate it. Now that we know that listeners at least have that much information up top, please do step in and tell folks about anything that has been missed about this strike, where it started, how it’s evolved, and what is happening right now as we speak.

Beth Loudin:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. We’ll take it back to the very beginning. We’ve been bargaining since August, which is just absolutely insane at this point. This is clearly a strike that management wanted to happen. Since meeting for bargaining, pretty similar regularly throughout the latter half of last year, we hadn’t gotten any movement really on even the small things in our contract. So really everything was still left outstanding by our deadline, which our contract expired December 31st. Prior to expiration, we had been very clear that expiration was our deadline. We had done a strike authorization vote with our members, and we had the strongest authorization vote we have ever in probably the history of NN, but definitely the history of Snet, NYP, New York Presbyterian. We had just record engagement and a solid 98% of nurses voted yes to authorize us to use a 10 day notice to go on strike if necessary.

And it became exceedingly clear that it was going to be necessary as even the basic things of healthcare and our pension had not been resolved by our deadline. We were informed that our specific hospital, New York Presbyterian, had been basically lobbying the other hospitals at the trustees, well, not at the trustee level, but within the healthcare benefits fund that we are part of to enforced drastic cuts. They wanted to cut a lot of what we currently have in our insurance plans because they just said it’s too costly. So rather than engaging in a process about how we could do cost savings and any of those ways that they normally do at the trustee level near tried to take it outside of the trustee level and demand cuts, cuts, cuts for healthcare for healthcare workers. So the first few weeks of the strike really we couldn’t even move the healthcare was, so the healthcare benefits fund fight was still ongoing.

Our hospital wanted to just give us a bucket of money too to disperse nons stall proposals. Instead of saying, let’s engage about your wage proposal, let’s engage about your differentials proposal, let’s engage about your healthcare, let’s engage about your pension, because we know all of these things will go up with money. The pension will go up in a little bit of money. The healthcare, of course, just like everybody else’s plans, the cost is going home. So process in which we were trying to get any of these issues resolved was very blocked by management doing this pocket proposal and also stalling on our healthcare benefits. So throughout this process, we have now gotten to the point where those things are taken care of and we were presented with a mediator proposal that was put together by even, we already had four mediators involved, one at each of the tables that were negotiating actively.

That was Mount Sinai, Maine, Mount Sinai, Morningside West, Montey, and us. So poor mediators were mediating between our tables and the ho, and then a fish mediator came in and put together a large mediator proposal to address everything. To be clear, this proposal did have standard wages and standard healthcare pension and a return to work plan for all the tables. And also to be clear, we always wanted to be in alignment with our brothers and sisters across the city and stand in solidarity with 15,000 nurses. That had been our plans since day one, is to stand strong together and fight together and use our collective power together. That being said, we were also still negotiating at four different tables. So within this mediator proposal, the other tables were a little bit ahead of us in terms of their boss moving on. Proposals such as even the day before the Montefiore management had already agreed to a lot of the staffing increases that the unions team had brought to the table.

They agreed to almost everything. So that had been cleared from the table from Monso, Mount Sinai. They had made significant moves on workplace violence, on AI protections and had actually had some dialogue around staffing going into that day that the mediator proposal was being developed. The Presbyterian’s table and the union side were days behind the others. So we had a lot of issues still out when we were given the proposal. There were two things lacking for us. One was staffing. They gave us some, but it was not enough to meet what our minimum needs are. The second part was job security. If you were aware, last year, New York Presbyterian decided in advance of any of the federal funding cuts that were coming down, they decided to do a 2% layoff across the whole enterprise. This affected about a thousand nener represented employees at our site here, and a lot of the targeting was at the nurse practitioner level, our advanced cat Cliffs nurses.

So we had that as a high priority in our contract fight this year that we should be able to protect our jobs and protect, especially advanced practice nurses from being replaced with other workers as it had been done in the past three years. We had seen this was a goal of our boss for the past three years. As they started chipping away, especially at the Allen Hospital, they got rid of some of the pain nurse practitioners and then they came for our beloved midwives and said, oh, we don’t need that service anymore. But then a week later opened up the service under Columbia University so that New York Presbyterian was not paying for it, but Columbia was. So this was clear union busting from the past three years. That’s why it was a high priority for us in the layoffs. There were pediatric nurse practitioners, very specialized pediatric nurse practitioners affected, and going through a layoff procedure as a nurse practitioner is different and we remedied that through our proposals of layoffs.

But of course we want the layoff procedure to be seamless, but we want to prevent it to begin with. So that’s the position we’re still stuck on, that our employer is not agreeing to put in any protections around job replacement by other practitioners or healthcare workers. So the two issues, again, outstanding are staffing, having staff through our staffing grids, which is how many nurses you need for how many patients, and the second part being job security. So those two items are the only two outstanding from the mediator proposal. So when we brought it to our membership on Sunday, we were very clear, these are the gaps. We’re going to push back on the mediator and say, these are the gaps they need to fix. If they fix it, then we will recommend this proposal. They came back around midnight and said, no, that was not possible.

So therefore our committee was not going to move forward with this proposal. Apparently New York Presbyterian accepted it, but that’s not a surprise because the majority of that proposal was management’s last position. So they were just basically taking their positions, putting it into this proposal and saying we need to agree to it. So from there, the other tables were able to find agreement. To be clear, they had other specific issues at their tables that were addressed in his proposal. So we all agreed to the top portion. That was a unified wages pension, healthcare and return to work program. But the secondary parts that were hospital specific did not meet what we needed at near Presbyterian from the union. Since then, as quoted in the article, our NNA executives did put it to the membership to take a vote and our membership stood with our local decision making.

They stood next to us, behind us, in front of us. We are all one here. We have really organized our whole membership over the past three years in preparation for this fight. We’re very well connected, so we were able to really add discussions and figure out what’s going on, how this could happen. We still have a lot more questions, but we did finish the vote yesterday and the membership made their voices clear. So from there we’re back to where we were on Sunday night, which is we should be continuing to bargain. We expect we are Presbyterian to give us dates to meet us at the table so we can finish this contract. This has always been about getting a fair contract. We never wanted to go on strike. We miss our patients. Our patients miss us. We’ve heard that time and time again from the patients on the inside.

We want to do our jobs, we love our jobs, but we can only return when our patients are being cared for safely through the language that we will get with more staffing and job security so that our specialized nurses and nurse practitioners can stay at that bedside throughout the years. So where we’re at now is that we are planning next steps. We encourage anyone and everyone to put pressure on New York flight to come to the table. They have threatened us that they won’t give us dates for weeks. We’re not going to stand for that. So please enact all of your networks. We call on the governor who has extended executive order after executive order to only benefit the hospitals. We know our rich, rich, rich employer does not need an executive order that allows them to hire any nurse from across the country without a New York state nursing license.

We knew they had over 1900 scabs before the strike even started and before the executive order was in enacted. They do not need that support from Governor Hoel. So we call on Governor Hills to stand by the workers, not by the millionaires. Bring your Presbyterian to the table. We call on our mayor, mayor Ani. We know you stand with us. We’re putting the ask out there that you facilitate meeting between us and our boss in order to complete this contract fight. We do think our resolution is close. Our membership is excited for that to be pleaded and that we will have a strong contract going back into the hospital. It is very possible. New York buzzer just have to come to get total.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Well, I really, really appreciate you for laying that out so thoroughly. You’re making my job easy and given listeners think a really clear timeline of how this has evolved. So I appreciate that and I wanted to follow up on that really quick with the few minutes that I have left with you. I wanted to ask if you could sort of address those listeners who have heard all this and are maybe feeling inclined to also be really critical of the union itself or seeing that well, how it be that one hospital needs to stay out on the line. Is everyone else just going to go back to work? Doesn’t that hurt them? Isn’t there a sort of like everyone stays out till we all get what we need kind of thing. I guess for folks who are working through what you said but have those kinds of questions, how would you also, I guess, explain for them what they’re not seeing or how to make sense of this situation?

Beth Loudin:

Yeah, I think each hospital was in a different position in terms of the end of their negotiations. Like I said, our table was further behind. There was hope that actually settling them would put pressure and embarrassment on New York Presbyterian, the richest hospital here that how come the rest can settle, why can’t you and put the pressure on the offs. Secondarily, I know for a fact that those that are going back to the hospital are not finished with a fight even inside, but definitely outside as well. I had Mount Sinai Montefiore nurses by my side yesterday. Were outside the NNA headquarters today. Even I’ve from Mount Sinai nurses who gave a donation of $3,000. They haven’t even gone back to work yet, and they’re here doing mutual aid, bringing us food, supporting us while we’re still outside. The work continues even when people go back to work, and we’ve already seen the fruits of that.

I think it’s heartening. It really helps us in our spirits seeing the support of them coming physically and financially and all of that support. But it also shows every level of leadership that we stand together no matter what. I think one benefit that maybe is off the cuff, but with those hospitals opening up, there are more per diem jobs available to nurses that we can pick up some shifts to tide us through this time as well. So there are benefits to folks settling. We love the solidarity. We’ve seen it in many, many ways. So it’s not just withholding labor. We also stand in solidarity through all the ways mentioned.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Well, and speaking of solidarity, as I mentioned in the introduction to this episode, the episode that we just published was an interview that I did with a panel of folks from unac UHCP out on the West Coast to listeners that’s United Nurses Associations of California slash Union of Healthcare Professionals, and they said a lot of, I think really important and powerful things connecting what they were fighting for and going on strike and staying on strike for and what y’all have been striking for and also kind of the connections that have been building between healthcare workers across the country. I wanted to just bring it back to that by way of a final question. Could you say a little bit to folks who will have just listened to a strike episode about healthcare workers on the west coast, about how this stuff is connected and why these demands that have not been resolved are worth staying on strike for you and your fellow union members?

Beth Loudin:

Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty clear that the hospitals themselves have been pretty well organized. They talk to each other. They’re always scheming about how to bust unions to keep workers down to financially strap organizations while they become richer and richer at the top. And our struggle is the same and our struggle is the same even in hospitals that don’t have unions that can protect them. So we hope that this is a wildfire. We hope that this fight gets picked up across the country. We’re strongly standing with our California and Hawaii brothers and sisters that we all are in the fight together. Any of the advancements that we achieve in our contract directly benefit anyone who enters our hospital patients, their families. We know it benefits people to have nurses that are protected, nurses that want to stay on the job and also enough nurses. You need enough nurses so that you can stay alive and you can get well and get out of the hospital or the clinics here at like specifically.

So there is a fight, I hope there’s many more that will pick up the fight and know that you can fight any pressure that comes towards you. This past six months of bargaining, there have been many, many tactics thrown at our bargaining team and thrown at our membership. Just know that worker power can be organizing with your coworkers, organizing across facilities. We have really opened up the relationships between all of our nurses in the city and then even over to California and Hawaii. New relationships are being formed through, through the struggle together. So it’s really been a beautiful, difficult, heartbreaking, all the emotions, period, but it really been, solidarity has been the best outcome of this strike so far.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright, gang, that’s going to wrap things up for us. For today’s strike update. I want to thank our guest, Beth Loudin, a neonatal nurse and member of the executive committee of the New York State Nurses Association at New York Presbyterian Hospital. And of course, I want to thank you all for listening and I want to thank you all for caring. We’ll see you guys back here next week for another episode of Working People, and in the meantime, go explore all the great work that we’re doing at The Real News Network across our YouTube channel. Podcast feeds our website, our social media pages, everything, and help us do more work like this by going to the real news.com/donate and becoming a supporter today. I promise you guys, it really makes a difference. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Solidarity forever.