St. Catherine of Siena Hospital nurses authorize strike

Nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown voted to authorize a strike in the latest escalation of the union’s contract dispute with the hospital, the New York State Nurses Association announced Monday morning.

The union said 98% of members who voted last week supported a strike. Federal law requires the nurses to provide 10 days’ notice to the hospital before initiating a work stoppage, and the union’s announcement indicated it had yet to do so as of early Monday.

Nurses at the 296-bed hospital are seeking higher pay that would put them in line with their peers at other Long Island hospitals as well as increased staffing. The strike vote took place between Wednesday and Sunday.

“It’s simple — we are fighting for safe staffing for our patients and the wages we deserve and need to recruit and retain nurses,” Tammy Miller, a registered nurse and NYSNA union president at the hospital, said in a statement. “Striking is a last resort and not a decision we take lightly, but we’ve made our concerns clear to management and now it’s time for them to deliver.”

The nurses’ contract with the hospital, which is part of the Catholic Health system, expired July 31.

The hospital, one of six that belong to the Catholic Health system on Long Island, has been negotiating with nurses on a new contract since June 30.

“St. Catherine of Siena Hospital has participated in 10 bargaining sessions with NYSNA and has made significant offers on wages, staffing and other matters of importance,” a spokeswoman for Catholic Health said in a statement. “We continue to bargain in good faith and remain committed to achieving a fair contract.”

In June, NYSNA members at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, another Catholic Health facility, approved a new contract that brings the average raise over the next three years to 20.5%. Nurses at the system’s St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage also agreed to a new contract earlier this year.

Pay and staffing levels continued to be the key sticking point in negotiations for St. Catherine Monday, said Randi Stewart, union vice president and a registered nurse at the hospital for more than 40 years.

“A lot of us have gone through COVID and seen a lot of nurses come and go. Retention and recruitment have just been horrendous,” Stewart said. “Because of all of that, there’s just been so much understaffing and patients aren’t being taken care of the way they should be, and it’s just to the point that nurses are frustrated and angry and want their voices heard.”

Stewart said she sees the issues of pay and staffing levels as intertwined. Even if the hospital agrees to maintain specific nurse-to-patient ratios on certain units, staffing levels won’t improve if nurses can find higher pay elsewhere.

Because of inadequate staffing, some nurses at the hospital have had to skip breaks and meals to continue caring for patients, Stewart said.

“I’ve been here a really long time, and I’ve never seen it quite like this,” she said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect date for the start of negotiations.

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.