3 Nurses Fired From Mount Sinai Ahead Of Strike, Union Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Mount Sinai Hospital fired three nurses over voicemail just hours before the ongoing strike began Monday, a move union leaders have recently said was an unlawful attempt to intimidate workers.

The firings at Mount Sinai have further inflamed tensions as nearly 15,000 nurses at three major private hospitals — including Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian on the East Side — walked off the job Monday. At the heart of the city-wide strike are demands for higher wages and improved healthcare benefits, issues that have remained unresolved since the New York State Nurses Association contracts expired on Dec. 31.

"Instead of addressing the most important issues — patient and nurse safety — hospital management has cowardly and unlawfully disciplined and terminated NYSNA nurses," Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said. "Management’s disrespectful treatment of frontline nurse heroes is despicable, but they cannot silence our union voice."

However, Mount Sinai Hospital officials have disputed this and said the three nurses were fired for interfering with strike-contingency drills after they were found hiding supplies in a locked room.

"We terminated three nurses last week for interfering with patient safety by deliberately sabotaging our emergency preparedness drills ahead of NYSNA’s strike, including hiding supplies from agency nurses who were in training so that they were prepared to help Mount Sinai continue to deliver patient care," Lucia Lee, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai, said. "This is completely unacceptable behavior, which included locking critical supplies designed to care for vulnerable newborns in conference rooms where they did not belong."

The nurse union said that, in addition to higher wages and health care benefits, the union is striking for improved pension plans and protection from workplace violence, highlighting the recent active shooter situation at Mount Sinai on East 100th Street in November.

One of the union's demands is to add weapons detection systems at every hospital entrance and to increase security, union representatives said at a rally in early December.

Two of the nurses fired, Berina Selimovic and Liliana Prestia said in a joint statement that the firings were "pure intimidation."

"Our unfair terminations were Mount Sinai’s attempts to scare other nurses and keep them from joining the strike line," Selimovic and Prestia said.

So far, the city's eight public "safety net" hospitals have made initial agreements with the union.
In addition to higher wages, benefits and safety protocols, key sticking points in the negotiations include the use of artificial intelligence and more robust staffing, the union said.

Here are the hospitals affected as of Wednesday.

• Mount Sinai Hospital
• Mount Sinai West
• Mount Sinai Morningside
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
• Montefiore Medical Center

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