Coinciding with Nurses Week, a few hundred New York State Nurses Association nurses rallied outside NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in Park Slope on May 8 alongside elected officials including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Assembly Members Robert Carroll and Jo Anne Simon, and Council Member Shahana Hanif.
They called for a fair contract with enforceable safe staffing standards to ensure adequate nurse-to-patient ratios, stronger protections against workplace violence, greater respect for nurses’ clinical judgment over artificial intelligence in patient care, and improved wages and benefits.
The union contract for nearly 1,600 nurses at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital expired April 30. The negotiations come on the heels of the largest nurses strike in New York City’s history, when 15,000 nurses stood on the picket line for 41 days and secured a new contract that includes more than 12% salary increases over three years, improved staffing ratios, workplace violence protections, and safeguards against AI.
Union representatives say hospital management has refused to engage in meaningful negotiations over minimum staffing standards intended to ensure patient and nurse safety, despite ongoing assaults on staff and violent incidents, including a fatal shooting on Jan. 8. In that incident, a 62-year-old patient experiencing a mental health crisis barricaded himself with others and threatened people with a sharp object before being shot and killed by NYPD officers.
Local NYSNA President at NYP Brooklyn Methodist and registered nurse Adlrich Crespino said fewer nurses mean fewer protections and greater risks for patients.
“Management wants to reimagine, that’s the word they use, to staff and strip down our grid, and not have minimum staffing numbers in our contract,” Crespino said. “That means we’re not guaranteeing enough frontline nurses and staff in our facility,”
NYSNA local leader Sharonda Green-Carter, a registered nurse who has worked at the hospital for 15 years, said NYP’s proposed changes to the staffing grid would lead to understaffing, heavier workloads, and reduced patient safety.
“It’s hard for the nurses. You now go home, stressed, burnt out. You’re bringing these problems home. You know, our job isn’t just a job, right?” Green-Carter noted. “We help people stay alive, and when you don’t have the resources in order to do that, then it goes the other way. And so now you start to feel responsible. You’re anxious; you could be worried about your license. You know, how you provide for your family.”
Green-Carter said assaults on nurses, including verbal abuse, physical violence, and sexual assault, have increased at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She added that proposals presented to NYP management include a behavioral emergency response team to prevent and manage mental health crises, weapon detection systems at all entrances, and paid time off for victims of workplace violence, including those affected by the Jan. 8 shooting.
“We demand that the NYP management come to the table in good faith and sign our proposal to provide a safe environment for our patients, the community, and our staff,” Green-Carter said.
Her colleague, emergency room nurse Joey Ellerbee, described two recent violent incidents in which a patient spat in his face and another physically assaulted him.
“All I have to do is walk away, wipe my face, [and] get myself together while I’m dealing with this. Who’s caring for my other patients? Nobody, I don’t have enough staff to do that,” Ellerbee said, noting that the ER was the only unit at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital without a staffing ratio and was therefore chronically understaffed.
“How is that safe for your family members to come in? Someone’s gonna get hurt, and it’s gonna come back on us,” Ellerbee said.
Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso urged NYP management to bargain in “good faith.”
“Our nurses are doing double the work. Our nurses are always putting themselves on the front lines to ensure the health of our people,” Reynoso, who is running for the NY-7 congressional district, said. “But when it’s time for us to show up for you, it’s like everyone disappears. But we’re telling Presbyterian that they’re not going to disappear, and if they can’t see us, they’re going to hear us today.”
Registered nurse Cindy Mei, who has worked at NYP Brooklyn Methodist for 12 years, said she is frustrated by management’s efforts to eliminate existing staffing ratios.
“We always had safe staffing grid ratios. They’re trying to take all that away. We had legislation during COVID that says that we should have safe staffing grids and units. If [NYP] is doing the right thing, why are you taking away that language? Something doesn’t add up,” Mei told Brooklyn Paper, noting she worked on Jan. 8 but only learned about the incident when colleagues texted her to ask if she was safe. “They’re talking about Acuity Census, but every month is different. Every season changes, so you need to take that into context.”
“Nurses who are working in that unit are frightened, and they were expected to take a patient within 12 hours after the shooting had happened. That’s unacceptable. It should never happen,” Mei said.
In a statement to Brooklyn Paper, NewYork-Presbyterian said its goal is to resolve disputes in a way that strengthens care teams and protects patients, adding that nurses are essential members of those teams.
“Our shared goal is always to resolve disputes in a way that strengthens care teams, protects patients, and reflects our responsibility to the broader health care system, including safety net hospitals that agreed to the same financial terms negotiated by the private systems,” the statement reads.
