St. Catherine of Siena Hospital agrees on 'tentative' contract with nurses
Nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown at a rally to push for a new contract. Credit: NYSNA
The union representing nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown said Friday it had reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, averting a potential strike.
The New York State Nurses Association said the agreement met its priorities, including standards for staffing levels, enforcement of those standards and “respectful wages.”
Nurses will vote on whether to ratify the new contract Tuesday, Aug. 22, and the union said it will release more detail on the contract terms after the vote.
The agreement marks a turnaround from earlier in the week, when NYSNA said negotiations for higher pay and improved staffing levels were progressing too slowly. Last week, 98% of NYSNA members who voted opted to authorize a strike. But the union ultimately never announced it had delivered a legally required 10-day notice that a strike was imminent.
A spokeswoman for Catholic Health said the preliminary deal reflects the hospital’s commitment to its nurses.
“The tentative agreement ensures that our nurses continue to be supported with competitive salary increases and staffing improvements,” she said. “Our nurses are vital to ensuring the communities we serve have access to the highest levels of care, and we are grateful for their dedication to our patients.”
The union has about 400 nurses at the hospital.
St. Catherine of Siena Hospital would be the third in the Catholic Health system on Long Island to agree to a new contract with NYSNA nurses this year. Union members at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson approved a contract that boosted wages by 20.5% on average over three years, improved health and education benefits and added Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day as holidays.
In April, nurses at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage signed a contract with raises of 6%, 6% and 5% over three years.
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.
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