Flexing Their Union Muscles: Takeaways from the Federation of Nurses New Contract (By David Ginsberg)

A big congratulations goes out to the Federation of Nurses/UFT for their well-deserved two-year contract after heated negotiations with NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn. Threatening to strike by Saturday, March 1, an agreement was reached at the eleventh hour, netting the nurses a 9.25% raise effective immediately, followed by a 6% raise effective March 1, 2026, totaling 15.75% over the course of the two-year agreement, plus a retention bonus and other promises to improve working conditions (read more here).

If that 15.75% figure looks familiar to you, fellow UFT member, it should. That is the same wage increase we earned thanks to the 2023 contract – only that 15.75% is stretched out over the course of FIVE years. So, how were our union brothers and sisters at the Federation of Nurses able to negotiate the same raises in less than half the amount of time? They threatened to strike. 

During 2023 contract negotiations, UFT President Michael Mulgrew refused to even consider the thought of striking. For all his bluster, his brand of toothless leadership hurts us in the long run. Especially when you make these sentiments known publicly. The point is to escalate actions and threats the longer negotiations go on. Mulgrew, ABC presidential nominee and 21-year Unity vet, Amy Arundell, and all of the other UFT bigwigs who insisted the 2023 contract was a fair deal took the opposite approach, portraying us as a weak, spineless union unwilling to fight for what we deserve. Mulgrew and Arundell are firmly on the wrong side of history. You know who has been on the right side of history? The members of ARISE. In fact, part of our platform is to make sure we are strike-ready. One week prior to the Federation of Nurses’ successful contract negotiations, ARISE Presidential nominee Olivia Swisher, posted her support on social media, expressing the need to be strike-ready:

Unsurprisingly, Swisher was immediately met with Unity resistance (name omitted because it goes against rules from the Facebook group): 

Several members of New Action, one of the caucuses making up the ARISE coalition in the upcoming UFT elections, have also called for amending the Taylor Law and explained how it hampers us during negotiations. ARISE VP of High Schools nominee, Ed Calamia, New Action co-chair and executive board member Nick Bacon, and others brought up the idea of a strike readiness campaign at a June 2023 executive board meeting, only to be shot down by Unity. New Action has also publicly questioned why UFT leadership doesn’t want us to have the right to strike. While going on strike should always be an absolute last resort, it is imperative that we have the ability to do so. The Federation of Nurses is just the most recent in a line of unions who have gone on strike or threatened to go on strike, and it’s been working out quite well. We are invaluable and it’s time to let our union and our city know that.

ARISE wants to amend the Taylor Law. ARISE is willing to go to any lengths necessary to earn all of our UFT brothers and sisters the raises and working conditions that we deserve. Mulgrew and Arundell have a ton of experience but neither of them have shown they have the gumption to do what is absolutely necessary when the time comes to get us the wages and treatment we deserve. We can vote in Olivia Swisher and ARISE and negotiate fair contracts like the one the Federation of Nurses just signed or we can continue accepting the pitiable raises and lousy working conditions constantly foisted on us by Unity lifers like Mulgrew and Arundell. We can change everything this May. The choice is ours.