Nurses strike vs sick working conditions

NYC, January 9 – Nurses in New York City struck a blow against the racist bosses at Mt. Sinai and Montefiore, two of the largest healthcare conglomerates in the city, during a recent strike. Wage increases had already been settled. This strike was against understaffing at these two hospitals in working class Black and Latin neighborhoods. Since the height of the Covid-19 crisis, nurses have been overworked, faced with death more consistently and quit en masse, with one nurse having to care for up to 20 patients in the emergency room.  A rep for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) was overheard saying, “If we hadn’t called the strike, the nurses would never have forgiven us.” The strike ended after four days with agreements that included concrete measures to enforce safer staff levels (nysna.org).

Members and friends of PLP attended the picket lines in support. Hospital workers around the city were inspired by this angry, multiracial group of mostly women–also combating sexism–refusing to sacrifice themselves and their patients on the altar of capitalist healthcare system.

Imperialist system can only deliver death care
Nurses working at these hospitals recognize how patient care is sacrificed to maximize profits. often at the expense of vulnerable workers. One of the picket signs read, “Babies, Not Bottom Line!” Mt. Sinai and Montefiore each indeed have cash and investment reserves of $2.6 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. Both have indeed cut back on charity care in the last decade.  Kenneth Davis, CEO of Mt. Sinai indeed made $5.6 million in 2019 with raises averaging 12.8 percent per year, and Ozua CEO of Montefiore, made $17.5 million in 2020 with raises of 8.5 percent per year (Portside.com, 1/11). It is true that top management makes large bonuses for saving the hospital’s money.  

But the problems are bigger than these two mega-systems. The U.S. ruling class is preparing for war against its imperialist rivals, mainly China but also Russia, a war that could turn into WWIII (see CHALLENGE at plp.org). Not only will such wars cause massive death and misery in themselves, but they will also soak up huge amounts of available resources. Monies have been and will increasingly be funneled into the military. One F-35 fighter costs $89 million, enough to keep 3,244 ICU beds in operation. The jet's hourly operating cost is $44,000 – how many nurses could be trained and paid with that over a year? (Stockholm International Peace Research).

Choose communism, for good healthcare
As the healthcare pie shrinks, the bosses are fighting over it. The health insurance industry is gobbling up Medicare and Medicaid dollars, enrolling people like NYC retirees in so-called “advantage” plans to reap profits by denying care. The pharmaceutical and medical device companies are raking it in with their patents and exorbitant prices. The hospital industry is responding with a wave of conglomeration as systems like Mt. Sinai and Montefiore snap up hospitals (often closing those they consider unprofitable, like Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, shuttered by an early iteration of the Mt. Sinai system in 2014).

When workers demand more staff, these profiteers argue that high executive salaries, minimizing charity care, prioritizing commercial insurance over Medicaid and Medicare, and cuts in staffing are necessary to run a viable healthcare business. In this imperialist system, on the brink of war, they are right.  We need to workers to join Progressive Labor Party to fight to build an international movement to eliminate these sick imperialists, and organize a communist society run for and by the working class without profits, private ownership, racism and sexism.