The largest union of nurses in New York City is voicing dismay that contracts at four large hospitals expired weeks ago without a new agreement being reached. Though the nurses have not threatened to strike, their frustration has been aggravated by their belief that the hospitals ? St. Vincent?s Hospital Manhattan, St. Luke?s-Roosevelt hospitals and New York-Presbyterian/Columbia ? should be generous in their contract offers in light of the nationwide nursing shortage. The New York State Nurses Association, with 34,000 members, is complaining about staffing ratios and health benefits for retired nurses, and last month it picketed St. Vincent?s Hospital Manhattan and Mount Sinai Medical Center.
See "With Contracts Expired, Nurses at Four Hospitals Cite Frustration", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, March 16, 2008