Pres. Davis Joins Nurses on Strike to Pledge Our Support

TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis joined thousands of striking nurses on a picket line and pledged Local 100’s support in their struggle for a fair contract.

Speaking outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, Davis said transit workers know first-hand how vital nurses are to city residents in medical crisis. Transit workers brought nurses and other hospital staffers to their posts by bus and subway during the dark days of the pandemic. Like transit workers, nurses were too essential to stay at home.

“On behalf of Local 100, we stand in solidarity with you, and we will make sure we fight for you,” Davis said. “Yes, we can! Sí se puede!”

Thousands of nurses, members of the New York Nurses Association, walked off the job at 6 a.m. Monday at Mount Sinai and three campuses of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. The nurses’ demands include “safe staffing.” Hospitals have not hired enough nurses to properly handle the volume of patients. As a result, nurses are overworked and stressed-out. Patients are receiving sub-standard care, nurses say.

Nurses on the picket said they appreciated Local 100’s support, just as they appreciated the service transit workers provided during the pandemic.

“Without transit, without the crosstown bus, I wouldn’t have been able to get to work,” a surgical ICU nurse with 25 years on the job said.