W’chester nurse strike threat

Nurses at a Westchester hospital put management on notice Thursday that they’ll strike in 10 days unless they can agree on a contract guaranteeing safer conditions and better stock of protective gear.

The 10-day strike notice, which was delivered Thursday morning at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, comes as COVID cases continue to surge nationwide, leading hospital staff to worry about the winter months ahead.

According to the New York State Nurses Association, staffing levels have plummeted at Montefiore’s outpost in New Rochelle, the suburb where coronavirus began its tear through the region in mid-March.

“It’s terrible – the worst it’s ever been,” Kathy Santoiemma, a veteran nurse, said of staff to patient ratios there.

In the surgery department, those ratios have grown to one nurse to every nine patients, the union said. In the ICU, it now stands at one nurse for every three patients.

Montefiore nurses voted to strike for two days, starting on Dec. 1 if some of their demands are not met.

Under state law, nurses are required to give 10 days’ notice before striking.

The nurses’ demands include management providing them with information “essential to bargaining,” better pandemic preparations and beefed up staffing.

Several elected officials have taken up their cause, including Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson.

In a Nov. 13 letter addressed to Montefiore New Rochelle President Philip Ozuah, they demand that the hospital “bargain in good faith.”

“With the Covid-19 crisis still a threat to patients and staff, it is especially important that the nurses who have been there every step of the way are accorded the respect that a finalized contract memorializes,” they wrote.

Montefiore spokeswoman Lara Markenson referred to “significant financial challenges” the hospital is facing, pointing out that despite that, nurses were offered a raise. She did not address their safety concerns.