New York State Nurses Association
fi les lawsuit against Montefi ore
Montefi ore nurses protest conditions Photo courtesy of NYSNA
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR APRIL 24-30, 2020 3
BY JASON COHEN
Sick and tired of not having
the proper personal protective
equipment (PPE) and
being short on staff while battling
COVID-19, city nurses
took legal action this week.
On April 20, the New York
State Nurses Association
fi led three lawsuits against
the state and two against hospitals
systems, one of which is
Montefi ore Medical Center.
The NYNA has 42,000
nurses, including 3,000 at
Montefi ore. The lawsuit seeks
to address severe workplace
hazards that are causing or
are likely to cause a nurse’s
death or serious physical
harm.
“Registered nurses have
high risk, physically demanding
jobs where they routinely
confront workplace violence,
are obligated to lift heavy patients
and commonly experience
other physical stressors,”
the lawsuit states.
“Further, RNs often face occupational
exposure to serious
infectious diseases, such
as tuberculosis and infl uenza.
Because of these diffi -
cult working conditions, even
prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,
nursing had one of the
highest rates of occupational
injury and illness of any profession.”
Plagued by the serious illness
and, in some instances,
death, the nurses on the front
line of the COVID-19 pandemic
are facing, NYSNA is
seeking a reverse Boys Markets
injunction to compel
Montefi ore to immediately
take steps required to protect
the nurses’ health and safety
pending the outcome of the
arbitration.
Last week, NYSNA initiated
a grievance under the
parties’ collective bargaining
agreement (CBA) challenging
the hospital’s widespread and
systemic failure during the
COVID-19 pandemic to “take
steps necessary to assure employee
health and safety” as
required under the CBA.
By the time that the grievance
will be heard at arbitration
and an award is issued, it
will be too late to fi x the damage
caused by the hospital’s
persistent failure to comply
with its contractual obligations,
particularly the serious
illnesses that the nurses,
their patients and families
have already suffered.
As of April 21, there have
been approximately 134,874
confi rmed cases in New York
City and 9,562 deaths, according
to city data.
Nurses caring for
COVID-19 patients, many
of whom have a persistent
and aggressive cough, are
regularly exposed to aerosolized
droplets. Furthermore,
during medical procedures
such as intubations,
when COVID-19 patients are
put on a ventilator to assist
in breathing, the number of
aerosolized droplets and the
risk to RNs signifi cantly increases.
Airborne particles
are smaller and drier, so they
travel farther and stay in the
air longer. Without proper
ventilation, the air itself in a
COVID-19 hospital unit can
become contaminated and
deadly.
State-wide, at least eight
nurses have died due to
COVID-19 contracted at work
and at least 84 have been hospitalized
with life-threatening
COVID symptoms. Approximately
72 percent of
NYSNA’s members have been
exposed to COVID-19 at work.
Even though testing has been
only sporadically available
for non-hospitalized nurses,
954 nurses already have
tested positive, including at
least 150 at Montefi ore.
NYSNA estimates that at
least another 150 nurses at
Montefi ore could test positive
for COVID-19 unless the hospital
takes action to assure
their health and safety.
Since January, NYSNA
has attempted to work with
the hospital to address the
COVID-19 crisis by implementing
basic safety measures
for the nurses and their
patients. But, their efforts
have been ignored.
“Montefi ore has become
a major center for treating
COVID-19 and suspected
COVID 19 patients,” the lawsuit
states. “Right now, the
hospital is like a war zone.
The RNs there are treating
large numbers of very sick and
frightened patients, and are
doing so with inadequate and
often ill-fi tting equipment,
often in rooms that have not
been properly converted to
deal with COVID-19 patients,
often working while they are
sick because they have been
forced back to work too early,
often in practice areas where
they have never been trained,
and generally without adequate
testing to ensure they
are fi t to work without infecting
others.”
For front line health care
workers like the Montefi ore
nurses, precautions must
include the provision of adequate
protective masks,
such as N95s, that are not improperly
stored and reused
day after day, and the provision
of non-permeable gowns
and other covering, both in
suffi cient numbers so that
they may be changed when
needed.
It also includes a proper
space to take the gowns off
so that disease-free areas in
the hospital do not become
contaminated, and so that
disease-infected air does not
linger.
Finally, the precautions
must include allowing nurses
to take guaranteed leave so
that they are not forced to
work while sick with COVID
symptoms and coronavirus
testing on demand so they
do not come back to work too
soon and infect their co-workers
and patients.
“NYSNA brings this lawsuit
because Montefi ore has
rejected the union’s repeated
efforts to work with the hospital
to lessen the risks posed
by COVID-19 so that more
New Yorkers will not die
needlessly—be they the Montefi
ore nurses themselves, the
patients they care for, the doctors
and other medical personnel
with whom they work,
the families they come home
to, or the people whose paths
they cross at the grocery
store, the pharmacy and on
public transportation while
traveling to and from work,”
the lawsuit says. “Nurses, as
unwitting carriers, may pass
the disease to someone who,
because of age, a compromised
immune system, or bad
luck, suffers serious or even
fatal consequences.”