Fighting on the Frontlines for patients and Caregivers

In April, leaders across the state sprang into action. We filed thousands of CoVID protests of assignment, lodged oSHA complaints, marched on hospital CoVID command centers, and appealed directly to the public. NYSNA members organized speak outs, press conferences, and other public events at Harlem and lincoln Hospitals in New York City, in long Island at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, in Central New York at ellis Hospital and St. elizabeth’s Medical Center, as well at Westchester Medical Center and Staten Island university Hospital, along with many other facilities.

Not only did we continue to press our demands for the federal government to invoke the Defense production Act, for proper ppe and widespread testing for healthcare workers, but we also carried a message of solidarity, calling for the same protections for other frontline essential workers, from bus drivers to grocery store clerks to food delivery workers.

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NYSNA also stepped into the breech to address staffing shortages, to coordinate temporary housing, and to get muchneeded ppe to the frontlines. Working with our longtime partner on disaster relief, the Afya Foundation, NYSNA volunteers, including family members and retired nurses, helped collect, sort and distribute tens of thousands of pieces of ppe to hard-hit areas.

We worked with AirBNB and hotels across the region to house hundreds of NYSNA members worried about carrying the virus home. And our union also organized the upstate CoVID-19 Nurse Corps, helping redeploy nurses from less impacted parts of the state to the virus epicenter.

thanks to relentless organizing and pressure from frontline nurses and health professionals, we forced Governor Cuomo to issue an executive order on April 7 that empowered him to commandeer the ppe stockpiles, especially N95 respirators, from industries like construction, shipbuilding and manufacturing.

And one week later, the Governor’s CoVID task Force issued a ppe directive requiring that “When a direct care giver in a hospital asks for a new N95 mask they will receive one at least once a day.” our high-profile lawsuits against Montefiore Medical Center, the New York State Department of Health, and Westchester Medical Center also resulted in substantial on-the-ground improvements such as proper N95 fit testing, guarantees of legally required sick time and restoration of sick bank time, and expanded CoVID-19 testing for exposed healthcare workers, despite the courts’ ultimate ruling.

Nurses at Lincoln Hospital, Jacobi Medical Center, Staten Island University Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center speak out for adequate PPE.

Thanks to relentless organizing and pressure from NYSNA members, we forced our hospitals, and Governor Cuomo, to take action and protect frontline nurses and health professionals.