NYC nurses restart contract talks with another major hospital system on 5th day of strike

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City nurses on strike restarted contract talks Friday with another one of the major hospital systems affected by the walkout that’s now in its fifth day.

The New York State Nurses Association said its bargaining team resumed meetings with their counterparts at the three impacted Mount Sinai hospitals at the request of a mediator.

Brendan Carr, CEO of the Manhattan-based health care provider, said Friday that administrators are working to bring the medical facilities to full capacity as they work toward a deal to end the city’s biggest strike of its kind in decades.

Mount Sinai has extended its contracts to retain thousands of temporary nurses to fill shifts and is also bringing on more specialized staffers to help bring surgical volumes back to normal, he said.

Nurses met Thursday night with NewYork-Presbyterian officials and a federal mediator in the first negotiations since roughly 15,000 nurses walked off the job Monday.

The hourslong meeting ran past midnight and ended with very little progress made, according to the union.

The hospital said in a statement that the discussions focused on addressing the union’s concerns about staffing levels, but that it still views the union’s proposals as “unreasonable.”