Why the nurses almost walked

Instead of traveling back home on Thursday after her shift ended at 5 p.m., Boucher and about 10 other nurses participated in a small press conference at the Sunrise Coffee Shop, located across the street from Flushing Hospital. The nurses discussed why, in their view, a strike is the only option that would effectively help them secure their demands.

“As much as we don’t want to go on strike, this is what they are forcing us to do,” said Caridad Everett, 60, a registered nurse who has worked at the hospital for 39 years.

The 420 nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association voted last month to authorize a strike if their health benefits and pension plans, which expired on Dec. 31, were not restored through negotiations with the hospital’s sponsor, MediSys Health Network. There is a 90-day extension on the medical coverage, but payments have ceased going into the pension plans of the nurses.

Michael Hinck, spokesman for Flushing Hospital, said in a prepared statement that the hospital is working aggressively in negotiations with NYSNA and on a contingency plan to ensure patient care is maintained in case an agreement is not reached.

“They fail to realize that we get sick too,” said Everett, who planned to retire in no more than two years, but now is uncertain.

On Thursday, nurses and NYSNA representatives said they were willing to pay for medical coverage out-of-pocket for the first time, but not at the amount the hospital is asking for, which according to the nurses, would cost hundreds of dollars per month. Boucher said that she was told if she did not want to pay the higher co-payments for her medications, she would have to fill prescriptions at the hospital, instead of a place closer to her home.

“As much as a police officer has the potential to get shot in the head, I have the potential to get Hepatitis C and die a long, horrible death,” Boucher said. “Why is it that we don’t get that same respect?”

The nurses said that management has told them it cannot support the demands.

“But they’re all driving away in their Mercedes Benzes, while I have 108,000 miles on my car,” Boucher said.

Occupy Wall Street activists and officials including Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) and state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) attended to support nurses. “Anyone who has been in a hospital, whether for a day or an extended period of time, knows that the nurses are on the front lines to make sure our needs are taken care of,” Meng said.

Boucher, a single mother of two, admitted that she and her family were petrified about a strike, but believed it might be necessary.

“We have to take a stand,” Boucher said. “Otherwise, they’re just going to step all over us.”

Two days later, a settlement was reached.

Hospital nurse strike averted

The 420 registered nurses at Flushing Hospital are voting Thursday to ratify a new contract that averted a strike originally set for two days earlier.

Agreement was reached early Saturday morning by the nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association, and MediSys Health Network, which runs the hospital. The contract expired at the end of December, with negotiations going on for over a year.

The sticking points were health insurance costs and pension benefits. Details of the agreement will not be released until the contract is ratified.

However, unofficially reports are that the three-year contract calls for nurses to pay between $25 and $100 a month for health benefits. They will not have to contribute to their pension fund.

In addition, RNs will not get a raise this year, but will get increases in 2013 and 2014. Hospital officials issued a statement on Monday that they were pleased to announce the agreement. It expires in 2014. Nurses at the hospital threatened to strike in 2006 and held pickets as they did in January, but the hospital came to terms over basically the same issues as this year.

    — Liz Rhoades