South Shore University Hospital nurses strike planned starting Feb. 27

South Shore University Hospital's nurses union threatened to strike starting Feb. 27 unless management agrees to hike wages, enforce patient-to-nurse ratios and meet other demands.

By delivering the strike notice, the union representing the approximately 800 nurses said it was giving the Bay Shore hospital, part of the Northwell Health system, “time to plan care for patients,” the union said in a statement.

“All 42,000 of our members have our back,” Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said in a statement.

Similar labor unrest recently erupted at a few of New York City’s major hospitals as nurses say hospitals remain woefully understaffed.

South Shore University Hospital local union president Chrysse Blau said the union wants the nurse-to-patient ratio clarified and enforced.

For example, in the ICU, the ratio currently is 2 to 1; medical surgical units are 6 to 1 and post-open heart unit after leaving the ICU is 5 to 1. But the hospital frequently exceeds the ratio, which are just guidelines agreed to by management and the union, she said; the union wants the ratio put into the contract.

In the emergency room, the number of nurses is set per shift per day but there’s no requirement to increase staffing if the ER gets crowded. The union wants that changed, too.

“As the volume surges, we may need extra hands, and we don’t have the extra hands that we need to provide safe patient care,” said Blau, a registered nurse who’s worked at the hospital for more than 36 years and is now assigned to radiology.

The union wants increases of 7% in the first year, 6% in the second year, 5% in the third year — at least to keep up with inflation and to keep the hospital competitive with compensation in the recently settled city contracts, she said.

The base salary starts at $47.17 per hour, according to union spokeswoman Diana Moreno.

Regardless of a strike, Moreno said, patients should never delay needed care. Still, she said: “It’s the hospital’s responsible to prepare, she said, and we’re giving them plenty of time.”

Northwell spokeswoman Miriam Sholder declined to respond to questions asking about the union’s specific demands, what terms have been offered but rejected and the hospital’s plans for nursing case in the event of a strike.

A statement from Sholder read, "our goal is to reach a fair contract."

"We remain optimistic that an agreement can be reached … Patient care remains our highest priority. South Shore University Hospital will be fully operational and continue to provide continued, world-class care to our patients," the statement said.

The strike last month, by some 7,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Center's Bronx campus, led to agreements to increase staffing and raise salaries by 19% over three years.

A majority of about 800 nurses at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital in Oceanside voted to join the nurses' union last month.

With Maura McDermott