Two of four city hospitals facing a looming nurses strike reached a last-minute agreement with the union Sunday — as a top doc at another facility warned of a “really bad situation” if staffers walk out.
Nurses at Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West came to an agreement with management Sunday afternoon, even as thousands of other nurses prepared to strike at 6 a.m. Monday at Mount Sinai’s main campus and Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.
“This is not a good thing for us, for the patients … We are really, really in a bad situation,” a Mt. Sinai obstetrics higher-up told his staff at the end of a call Sunday, preparing them for the possibility they will have to deliver their patients’ babies at Lenox Hill Hospital or NYU Langone, according to audio obtained by The Post.
The chief doctor and his team directed physicians to begin calling patients to prepare them for the possibility of a strike and warned that they may not be able to be present for delivery if they haven’t received credentials for the other hospitals.
Mount Sinai Morningside/West are the latest hospitals to reach an agreement with its nurses after 16,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association authorized a strike Dec. 30, giving affected hospitals a 10-day deadline to reach a deal.
Mount Sinai management, who employ 3,628 nurses at their main campus, walked out on negotiations amid an impasse Thursday but returned to the bargaining table Sunday.
The massive medical complex and its competitors are beset by understaffing and scheduling practices that have left nurses spread thin, according to union leaders.
“The No. 1 issue is the crisis of understaffing,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans told reporters amid negotiations Sunday morning.
The emergency room at the Bronx’s Montefiore, where the union has 3,476 members, “is often so overcrowded that patients are admitted in beds in a hallway instead of hospital rooms,” Hagans said.
“We are here to negotiate in good faith, to make sure that the nurses have enough resources to care for the patients.”
A representative for Mount Sinai heralded the agreement reached for Mount Sinai Morningside/West and said the “exact wage agreement” had been offered to nurses at the main campus, too.
“We are continuing to actively negotiate in good faith with NYSNA and hope they will accept our offer – which would provide an additional $51,000 in cash compensation for each nurse and $19,500 in medical and pension payment benefits over three years,” spokeswoman Lucia Lee said in a statement.

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