SIUH/NYSNA NP Negotiation Update – January 24, 2021

This past Friday, Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) met virtually with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) for our 14th negotiation session.

During the negotiations, NYSNA and several of your nurse practitioner (NP) colleagues vocalized your collective expectation that the hospital would simply include NPs in the existing SIUH staff nurses’ contract. As we communicated to you before your union vote, if NYSNA were elected as your bargaining representative then SIUH and NYSNA would need to negotiate the specific terms and conditions of your employment. Due to the dynamic nature of bargaining, there was never any guarantee that you would receive the same or a similar contract as the staff nurses — nor could there be because neither party can predict the outcome of the negotiations. This is especially so because of the need to negotiate a tailored contract reflecting the unique professional status of our NPs, as well as the notable differences in job scope between NPs and nurses.

We share in your expressed frustration about the lack of progress occurring in the negotiations. For months, NYSNA has hindered any progress by continuing to make unreasonable demands related to per diem usage. Specifically, the union has rigidly rejected SIUH’s many proposals to balance the union’s concerns about per diem overuse with the hospital’s need for flexibility to rely on per diems to cover unplanned absences and vacancies. Importantly, in the grand scheme of these negotiations, per diem usage represents a relatively minor issue to NPs, and NYSNA’s close-mindedness is stalling the bargaining.

We remain hopeful that NYSNA will make a more meaningful attempt to advance these negotiations and find common ground at our next negotiation session on Jan. 26.

To stay up to date on the progress of negotiations, please sign up for text message alerts by texting SIUHNP to 77295, and visit this website.