New York Times, August 14, 2024, A Nurses’ Union Flexed Its Power. One Hospital Is Pushing Back.
Three weeks ago it filed a petition in Federal District Court in Manhattan, asking a judge to overturn an arbitration decision that awarded nurses in an understaffed unit at Columbia University Medical Center more than $270,000. The hospital said that it had made “good-faith efforts” to hire enough employees and that the nurses should receive nothing.
But the clearest sign of an “escalation” occurred in June, said Pat Kane, the executive director of the state’s largest nurses’ union, the New York State Nurses Association. That was when NewYork-Presbyterian took an unexpected step in its long-running battle to fire a particular nurse and union organizer at a Westchester County hospital. Having lost before three tribunals, the hospital system filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
