Nurses, and Small Bites
NYSNA Nurses at New York-Presbyterian Vote to End Strike
There was an unusual split last week between the state-wide nurses’ union (NYSNA) and the bargaining committee for the 4000 nurses who work at New York-Presbyterian (NY-P). NYSNA believed it had reached an agreement with NYP, as well as the Mt. Sinai and Montefiore hospital networks, but the staffing language for each chain was and is different, based on the particularities of unit organization at each hospital. It set a vote for all three chains, even though the NY-P bargaining committee felt that the staffing agreements there were still unsatisfactory.
As the Chief-Leader reported:
In a remarkable rebuke of union leadership, 3,099 union members voted against ratifying the initial agreement, while 867 voted for it. In the wake of the vote, workers returned to their picket lines while management and the union met once again at the bargaining table. The union eventually extracted an agreement, with the help of a mediator, that addressed the extra concerns raised by the New York-Presbyterian nurses who voted against the first pact.
The NY-P nurses spent an additional week on the picket line – almost six weeks total – before their demands were met. NY-P (and particularly the Columbia Presbyterian part of the chain) has been the most anti-union of the hospital chains going back all the way to the 1970s, when it was the last to unionize.
The Chief further notes that,
Earlier this week, an arbitrator ruled that the hospital owes its nurses nearly $400,000 for “chronic” staffing issues in a pediatric care unit according to NYSNA. The hospital violated staffing rules outlined in its most recent contract with the union 614 times between Jan. 1 2023, and May 31, 2024. It was the third time that arbitrators have awarded relief to NewYork Presbyterian nurses, but [incredibly!] the hospital has appealed the penalties in federal court and has yet to disperse payment to nurses.
Note that “The Chief,” as it is generally known, (and for which I am now a monthly paid columnist; here’s my most recent column for them: The idea of a general strike has entered the national conversation) is usually the best source of information for New York labor and union news, and has recently expanded its national and international labor coverage.
I’m going to try to find out before next week what the particular issues were that stalled the first agreement at NY-P.
Affordable housing - you do the math
On the one hand, the City announced its intention to build 340 affordable units on 119th and Park, close to the 4,5, and 6 subway lines and MetroNorth, plus a new garage for the proximate police precinct and a space for the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, all costing $255 million.
On the other hand, the luxury developers of Hudson Yards want the city to pay $2 billion – eight time as much – to build a deck over the LIRR rail yards between 11th and 12th Avenues in return for promising to provide 625 affordable units.
Another Stonewall – this one about disappearing Class
What is Stonewall without the rainbow flag? Just an ugly building on Christopher Street. Similarly, at the Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, “employees were ordered to stop showing films about the grueling conditions endured by mill workers, many of them women and immigrants, in the early 19th century.” Because, you know, those machines just ran themselves.
Evaluation of Union Membership Totals Sparks Dispute About Silver Lining in Cloud
As is well known, union membership rates have been dropping for decades, recently reaching about 10% of all workers, and about 6% of all private sector workers. Last week, the 2025 numbers were released. On the one hand, the Guardian (and Portside) reported that “US Union Membership Soared [my emphasis]… 14.7 million US workers were union members in 2025, up from 14.2 million workers in 2024… [and] union membership [rates] increased from 9.9% in 2024 to 10% in 2025.” Soared? Hamilton Nolan, however, comments, “the relevant takeaway from these numbers is: Once again, union density did not meaningfully go up… Union density under ten percent is a collective failure. We need to stare it squarely in the face if we are ever going to change it.”
Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen Can’t Bring Himself to Say “Trump”
According to Gothamist, following threats by the federal Department of Transportation to withhold $73 million in highway funding, if states “did not cease issuing commercial driver licenses to many noncitizen applicants,” New York State has done just that. This affects, among others, MTA and yellow school bus operators. About 5% of the state’s yellow bus drivers are licensed through the state’s “non-domiciled” program. New York State is suing to reverse this policy.
Somehow, TWU President John Samuelsen thinks this is all Kathy Hochul’s fault. “This is another case of Kathy Hochul sticking it to working people,” Samuelsen said. “She wants her rich donors to think she’s fighting while dumping working people into the wood chipper. This is about whether hardworking drivers can earn a fair wage and Hochul doesn’t give a shit about that.”
C’mon John, say the magic five letter word: T-R-U-M-P. In the most recent issue of the 28-page TWU Express, Trump’s name appears just twice, in an article noting that “Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill” was “poorly drafted,” thus excluding many TWU members from an exemption of some overtime earnings from federal taxation.
Union Busting at St. John’s University
On Thursday, St. John’s President Rev. Brian J. Shanley informed faculty via email that the university will no longer recognize its two unions that were formed in 1970—the St. John’s University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (SJU-AAUP) and the Faculty Association (FA). The unions write, “He claims to ‘believe in the right to organize and the right of free association’ but severely distorts Catholic teaching by describing labor unions as ‘burdens’ to management and obstacles to the common good.” Please sign a letter of support here.