| | A Weekly Update for NYSNA Members | April 4, 2025 | | | | | | HANDS OFF Our Healthcare, Unions and Democracy! NYSNA Joins April 5 Day of Action Our healthcare system and good union jobs are under attack by the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts. Union nurses are fighting back. Tomorrow, Saturday, April 5, NYSNA will join a nationwide day of action to send a clear message: HANDS OFF our healthcare, our unions and our democracy. We are coming together with millions of New Yorkers across the state to stop the widespread attacks on our rights. Join NYSNA and our labor family at one of these locations throughout New York: - New York City — 1 p.m. at Bryant Park, New York, NY 10018, RSVP here
- Mount Kisco — 10 a.m. at 1 Kirby Plaza, Mt Kisco, NY 10549, RSVP here
- Kingston — 11 a.m. at Academy Green Park, 238 Clinton Ave, Kingston, NY 12401, RSVP here
- Albany — 11 a.m. at 100 S Mall Arterial, Albany, NY 12242, RSVP here
- Buffalo — 11 a.m. at Niagara Square, Buffalo, NY 14202, RSVP here
Our healthcare system and jobs aren’t the only things under attack. Last Friday, Trump signed an executive order seeking to end federal employees’ collective bargaining rights, one of the largest attacks on labor unions in history, including 15,000 National Nurses United registered nurses with the Veterans Administration. And on April 1, in yet another assault on workers, the administration announced cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, including the termination of nearly 900 workers, essentially eliminating an agency that protects workers in healthcare and some of the most dangerous industries. Join us tomorrow in NYSNA red to defend our healthcare, unions, democracy, and the critical programs that keep New Yorkers healthy and safe. | | | |  | CenterLight Nurses Deliver Strike Notice Last week, a super majority of CenterLight nurses voted to authorize an unfair labor practice strike. After CenterLight refused to return to the bargaining table, nurses delivered a strike notice to management on Thursday, April 3, to send a clear message that they are ready to do whatever it takes to win back their healthcare and bargain a fair contract. CenterLight management illegally stripped nurses of their health benefits at the beginning of this year. Since then, nurses have been busy organizing by gathering community petition signatures, engaging elected officials to call out CenterLight’s unlawful behavior and speaking out in the press. But CenterLight management has continued to drag its feet on NYSNA members’ most important proposals, and CenterLight nurses have had enough. Striking is always a last resort, and nurses have made it clear they are prepared to bargain at any time to reach an agreement, but if management leaves them no other option, nurses will begin their unfair labor practice strike on Monday, April 14. All 42,000 NYSNA members are in solidarity with CenterLight nurses! | | | | Northwell Nurses Are in Solidarity With Northwell/Huntington Hospital Nurses After Northwell/Huntington Hospital nurses learned that Huntington management is unwilling to negotiate a fair contract on-site at the hospital or at NYSNA offices, they started an email campaign to demand that Huntington Hospital leadership agree to meet in person at these locations and bargain a fair contract. The campaign has gained traction, and now NYSNA nurses from Northwell/South Shore University Hospital and Northwell/Staten Island University Hospital have joined in to flood Northwell leadership’s inboxes and call on management to listen to Huntington nurses. NYSNA nurses are showing up for their fellow union members to remind Northwell that they are ready to hold management accountable until it agrees to bargain a fair contract for Huntington nurses and to show there is power in a union! | | | |  | MSSN Nurse Writes Op-Ed Demanding a Fair Contract NYSNA nurses at Mount Sinai South Nassau are fighting for a fair first contract to provide quality care to Long Island patients. Last Friday, March 28, Mount Sinai South Nassau labor and delivery nurse Nancy Garcia, RN, wrote an op-ed to call on Mount Sinai to listen to South Nassau nurses and bargain the contract that nurses and patients deserve. Garcia says nurses are tired of hospital executives disrespecting their right to organize and are asking for management to value their labor, respect their voices as patient advocates and come to the bargaining table in good faith. Read the full op-ed here. | | | | Albany Med Allies Release Letter of Solidarity Labor and community allies from across the capital region, including the New York State AFL-CIO, the New York State Council of Churches and Capital District Area Labor Federation, released a letter of solidarity in support of NYSNA nurses at Albany Medical Center who are fighting to protect patient care. After NYSNA nurses received access to the long-awaited Department of Health staffing deficiency report about Albany Medical Center, which outlines over 500 violations of New York’s safe staffing law, they held a press conference to call out hospital leadership’s attempts to downplay the staffing crisis. Now allies are calling on the hospital to settle a fair contract and follow New York’s safe staffing laws. Capital region nurses and patients deserve a fair contract that puts patients over profits! | | | | Know Your Rights and Advocate for Patients When Encountering ICE Nurses’ first duty is to care for and advocate for our patients. NYSNA nurses care for all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status, income or insurance status, race, religion, ability or disability, sexuality, or gender identity or expression — simply regardless. Read our statement regarding the federal policy change on immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations,” including hospitals and schools. NEW: Our allies at the New York Immigration Coalition developed this toolkit to provide a comprehensive list of resources for community members, partners and allies who work with immigrants. The toolkit covers health, community safety, family resources, financial empowerment and more. Learn your rights and get answers to frequently asked questions here to know what to do if you encounter ICE officers in your facility. NYSNA has also prepared this list of legal resources related to immigration. Please review and share widely. | | | | Key Dates for 2025 Primary Election Our ability to strengthen the public health system — our social safety net — and support frontline working people depends on electing candidates who support nurses, healthcare professionals and our communities. For that, we need our members to get out the vote in New York’s primary elections. Review important dates and information about this year’s primary below. Find Your New York City Polling Site Find Your New York State Polling Site KEY DATES FOR 2025 ELECTIONS - June 14: Last day to receive an absentee ballot
- June 23: Deadline to apply in-person for a primary ballot
- June 14-June 22: Early voting for the primary election
- June 24: Primary Election Day | Deadline to postmark mail-in ballot
| | | | NNU Applauds Reintroduction of Federal Legislation to Prevent Workplace Violence National Nurses United (NNU) applauds the reintroduction of the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act. The bipartisan bill would mandate health care and social service employers develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan. The reintroduction of this bill comes as nurses and hospital staff face an epidemic of violence. Just this year, nurses and hospital staff have been violently attacked at UPMC Memorial in Pennsylvania, HCA Florida Palms West Hospital and HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. Many more incidents go unreported or are pushed aside by hospital management. Read NNU’s press release in support of this important federal legislation here. | | | | New Upcoming NNU Workshops Free for NYSNA Members Starting in May and throughout the summer, NNU is offering these new virtual courses free for NYSNA members: When registering for NNU courses, be sure to check off the first box, "Yes, I am a CNA/NNOC/NNU member." | | | | Nurses for Democracy: Updated Resources to Protect Patients and Navigate Recent Federal Changes The Trump administration is rapidly making sweeping changes that affect nurses and our patients in and out of the hospital. As nurses, our first and most important responsibility is to our patients. Regardless of gender or immigration status, we are committed to providing every patient with high-quality, safe healthcare and treating them with dignity as people. That is why NNU has put together a list of resources to stay informed and fight back against the rollout of several policies attacking and endangering marginalized communities’ health, safety and lives. See our list of resources regarding these policy changes here. | | | |  | Take the NYSNA Learning Needs Assessment Survey Today! Help NYSNA understand your needs by completing the 2025 NYSNA Learning Needs Assessment survey. It only takes a few minutes, and your feedback and commentary are invaluable to plan our educational programs so that they are best suited to meet our members’ needs. For nurses and other healthcare professionals at the frontlines of rapidly changing environments, learning and adjusting are necessary skills required to care and advocate for the patient. NYSNA’s Nursing Education and Practice team is here to help! But we also need your help completing our survey before the April 18 deadline! If you have any questions, please email the Nursing Education and Practice department at education@nysna.org. | | | | Journal of the New York State Nurses Association The Journal of the New York Nurses Association is currently seeking papers. Authors are invited to submit scholarly papers, research studies, brief reports on clinical or educational innovations, and articles of opinion on subjects important to registered nurses. Of particular interest are papers addressing direct care issues. New authors and student authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts for publication. Check out the latest volume of the journal and read the guidelines for submission here. | | | | 2025 Nursing Education & Practice Courses NYSNA members can take advantage of FREE e-leaRN courses, including state-mandated offerings, standard of practice and certification review courses, as well as nursing practice workshops. Take a look at the complete course offering, and register for the courses directly here. You must create an account and be signed into it to search the full catalog of classes and register for them at no cost! | | | | Seminar at Sea 2025 Join NYSNA on a weeklong cruise from Spain to Portugal on May 24-31, 2025. Not only will you get a chance to visit these beautiful countries, but you will also have the opportunity to obtain nursing continuing education credits and connect with colleagues from New York and throughout the country. You can find additional information on our website to learn about this unique and informative educational program and details on how to register for the cruise. | | | | Calling All Nurse Practitioners The NYSNA Nursing Education and Practice Department has added required and important educational offerings specifically for nurse practitioners (NPs). The courses include new, updated, new and required and mandated courses. Learn more and register to these free classes for NYSNA NPs. | | | | | | Labor Education: Spring 2025 Trainings Open for Registration In preparation for contract negotiations later this year, about 80 nurses from the Bronx (BronxCare and Montefiore) attended an online training on Monday, March 24, to find out why we need a powerful Contract Action Team (CAT), a member-to-member network, to win a strong contract. Key lessons from the training include CAT members’ responsibility to talk to and organize 10 co-workers on their unit during the contract campaign and how important it is for CAT members to round on other units to help build the network. Finally, CATs from the 2022 contract fight described how they built power so the boss knew that the bargaining committee had organized nurses who were ready to show the hospital how serious they were. Calling all Contract Action Team (CAT) members! Learn how to be a leader in a contract campaign as an engaged CAT member! Register here. The statewide Spring 2025 Member Leader Training series is coming up! Registration is open and will take place on Zoom on Thursdays, April 4, 10, 17 and 24, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Member Leader Training is a four-part training open to all members who want to deepen their leadership skills, and it covers all the basic skills needed to represent your co-workers, enforce your contracts, organize successful collective actions, plan workplace issue campaigns, and have effective meetings with management. You can take each part individually or the entire series, and each provides three contact hours and 0.3 CEUs. Register here and invite your co-workers to attend with you. Check out all of Labor Education’s trainings here, and please reach out to labored@nysna.org with questions or requests for trainings in your facilities. | | | | | | | | Effective Jan. 1: Prenatal Rights Under New York State Law Recent changes to New York state employment law help working parents better navigate work and family and require hospitals to better accommodate registered nurses’ medical and family needs. Effective Jan. 1, 2025, New York has become the first state in the U.S. to require paid prenatal care leave, impacting all private employers. This comes not long after the June 2024 change that requires public and private employers to provide a minimum of a 30-minute paid break for employees to pump breast milk. Learn more about these rights in our updated NYSNA fact sheet and the New York State FAQs. | | | | Nurses’ Rights to Be Whistleblowers and Protest Your Assignments NYSNA members should be empowered with the knowledge of laws that have been passed with NYSNA’s input to protect them and empower them to speak up when patient safety is compromised, either due to unsafe staffing or other factors, such as a lack of personal protective equipment, as was the case throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Take a moment to learn about your rights in this flyer. | | | | Last Chance to Take April 8 Avian Flu Webinar The current avian influenza outbreak in the U.S. has affected almost 200 million birds and almost 1,000 cattle herds. Many other species, including domestic cats, have been infected. And while the official count of human infections remains under 100, it is estimated that actual cases are far higher. While person-to-person transmission of avian influenza remains relatively rare, it is likely that a mutation that makes this type of transmission more efficient will happen at some point. NYSNA’s Occupational Health and Safety team invites you to register for the upcoming Tuesday, April 8, webinar to learn about the current state of avian influenza transmission, surveillance, testing, patient treatment and ways to protect healthcare professionals from infection. | | | | CDC Issues Health Advisory on Influenza Testing The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health advisory through its Health Alert Network regarding testing and subtyping for influenza A. There is currently a high rate of seasonal influenza A (both H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes) in circulation. In addition, the current avian influenza subtype is an influenza A virus (H5N1). By recommending a shorter timeline for testing and subtyping which type of influenza A that patients are presenting, the CDC hopes to catch any human avian influenza cases as quickly as possible. Read the full advisory here. If you have questions or concerns regarding infection control at your facility, please contact the NYSNA Occupational Health and Safety Representatives at healthandsafety@nysna.org. And check out all the latest infectious disease alerts from NYSNA Health and Safety, including the updated Are Hospitals Today More or Less Prepared for Surges? health alert as well as alerts about Norovirus and Mpox. | | | | COVID-19 Leave Fact Sheet Nurses working in New York have several options for fully paid or partially paid leave to cover work time missed due to COVID-19 infection or COVID-19 quarantine. Check out this fact sheet updated by NYSNA’s Occupational Health and Safety team to learn more about your rights under New York state law. | | | | Long COVID Guide Read NYSNA’s Long COVID Guide to help you stay informed on the diagnosis, treatment options, benefits and rights for workers with long COVID. | | | | | | | | NYSNA Life Insurance – It's Time to Designate Your Beneficiary NYSNA already provides members with a great benefit at no cost: Basic MetLife Life Insurance! This coverage provides $20,000 of Basic Life Insurance and $20,000 of Basic Personal Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance. All active members in good standing represented for collective bargaining through the union will automatically be enrolled in the plan. This union benefit is in addition to any other insurance provided by your benefits fund, your contract, or through your employer. But for your loved ones to receive this benefit, you must designate them as a beneficiary! To enroll and receive instructions on designating a beneficiary for your new Basic Personal AD&D Insurance, go to nysnawinstonbenefits.com or call 1-866-483-1124. Sign up with your NYSNA Member ID to set up and access your account and benefits. If you need your Member ID, please contact the NYSNA Membership department at membership@nysna.org. Download the flyer for additional details. | | | | NYSNA Will-Writing Benefits From MetLife The NYSNA Benefits Fund gives NYSNA members who are covered by the NYSNA Benefits Fund access to personal will preparation services that MetLife Legal Plans offer — at no additional cost. Having a will prevents unnecessary stress and ensures final wishes are clear. The Benefits Fund offers valuable legal resources through MetLife Legal Plans to assist with creating or updating a will with a member’s Basic Life coverage. As part of this benefit, members get legal guidance and unlimited consultations with network attorneys. Learn more here. | | | | NYSNA Members Are Eligible for AFL-CIO’s Union Plus Benefits! The benefits of being a NYSNA member extend beyond your NYSNA benefits. As an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, NYSNA members are also eligible for Union Plus benefits to help current and retired labor union members and their families save money and support them through major milestones, celebrations and hardships. These benefits include discounts on wireless plans, credit card deals, mortgage deals, discounts on insurance plans and more! Find out more on the AFL-CIO Union Plus website. | | | | | | Free Benefits for NYSNA Members: UAP Program and SPAN Program The Union Assistance Program (UAP) is a confidential self-help program, independent from NYSNA, that is available to NYSNA members and their families as a membership benefit. When an employee or family member (18 or older) faces a significant personal problem, they can call UAP’s experienced counselors at 800-252-4555 for assistance at any time. Read more information on phone counseling services here. Learn about the benefits and resources that the UAP offers here. The April 2025 newsletter focuses on rethinking drinking for your health. Statewide Peer Assistance for Nurses (SPAN) is a confidential education, support and advocacy program for all nurses licensed in New York state who are dealing with substance abuse problems. Visit the SPAN website for more information, or to sign up for one of its March classes. Learn more about SPAN’s new Compassion Project here. Check out our NEW Spring Newsletter. Wellness Wednesdays: As part of its mission to promote a healthy lifestyle, SPAN is also offering a Self-Care Series that includes free Wellness Wednesday courses. Check out April’s classes focused on functional mobility as well as the full calendar of Wellness Wednesday offerings here. | | | | | | | | In solidarity,
Pat Kane, RN
Executive Director | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
