By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, Anne Goldman, RN, head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT and Rebecca Morogiello, RN, and case manager at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, join us to explain how the need for safer staffing prompted the union’s recent vote to strike when their current contract expires later this week on Feb. 28.

The UFT has documented 8,000 cases of short staffing in the past 36 months in violation of state law and of the nurses' own contract with NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn. 

In 2004, California became the first state in the nation to pass legislation mandating patient nurse ratios. Multiple studies since have found the staffing ratios reduced re-hospitalizations, improved patient outcomes, and reduced the average hospital stay.

Goldman and Morogiello describe how the short staffing extends to multiple job titles.

“Independent arbitrators have sided with the Federation of Nurses/UFT and have repeatedly found the hospital ignored established nurse-to-patient ratios,” the union says.

Tax filings, meanwhile, show NYU Langone CEO Dr. Robert Grossman earning $22.8 million.

Maura Collinsgru, New Jersey Citizens Action Director of Policy and Advocacy, and Fran Ehret, executive director of CWA-NJ, representing tens of thousands of state workers, also talk about the potential impacts on the state’s most vulnerable residents if the GOP House of Representatives’ plans to cut over a trillion dollars in Medicaid, food stamps and education spending  come to pass.  

Listen to the entire show below: