It’s entirely a coincidence—maybe—but Joe Biden’s America is fraught with labor union strikes. It feels like every other month, there’s some union, usually one involved in an essential industry, that threatens to blow up the system by going on strike. Little did we know that for most of this year, a looming and destructive railroad strike could have derailed around one-third of the economy, and the Biden administration failed miserably to resolve it, opting to hand over duties to Congress, forcing the railroad unions and their associated companies to an agreement that prevented the virtual shutdown of commuter traffic, one-third of all freight transportation, and daily losses that soared into the billions.
The railroads were solely in Biden’s court, but while this crisis has been resolved, for which the president and his super team of mental defectives deserve no credit, we have a nursing crisis in New York City. Thousands of nurses walked out today amid a collapse in bargaining negotiations. The strike at Montefiore and Mount Sinai Hospitals has led to patients being transferred, ambulances redirected, and some services being forced to scale back due to the lack of staffing. Nurses weren’t happy with a 19.1 percent pay hike (via Fox Business):
More than 7,000 nurses are on strike Monday morning across the Big Apple – down from the initial 10,000 planning to walk out three days ago – hours after union representatives at two major hospitals walked away from the bargaining table despite Gov. Kathy Hochul’s calls for arbitration.
The New York State Nurses Association, representing more than 40,000 workers statewide, said more than 7,000 nurses at two hospitals in New York City are on strike "for fair contracts that improve patient care."
The union said after bargaining late into the night at Montefiore and Mount Sinai Hospital Sunday, no tentative agreements were reached.
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, picketing lines are planned at four locations -- Montefiore Moses, Montefiore Weiler, Montefiore Hutch, all in the Bronx, as well as at Mount Sinai Hospital, located in east Harlem in the borough of Manhattan.
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NYSNA leadership reportedly walked out of negotiations shortly after 1:00 a.m., "refusing to accept the exact same 19.1 percent increased wage offer agreed to by eight other hospitals, including two other Mount Sinai Health System campuses, and disregarding the Governor’s solution to avoid a strike," Mount Sinai Hospital said in a statement early Monday.
It’s not the only strike that’s occurred in the Big Apple. While not as critical as nursing, The New York Times had some 1,000 staffers walk out over failed labor union talks, which I couldn’t care less about—but 7,000 nurses not working is an issue, with their behavior being labeled “reckless” by Mount Sinai Hospital.
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