St. Charles Hospital, nurses reach tentative contract agreement, averting strike

St. Charles Hospital and its unionized nurses have reached a tentative agreement to avert a strike set for Monday, the union and Catholic Health announced Thursday.

Nurses at the Port Jefferson hospital, which is owned by Catholic Health, had voted by a 99.7% majority last month to authorize a strike for Monday.

Nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association are scheduled to vote Friday on the new three-year contract.

"This was all about staffing," said Rob Barone, president of the union’s St. Charles bargaining unit and an intensive care nurse, referring to the union's assertion that nurse-to-patient staffing levels at the hospital often are unsafe.

A 2023 state law mandates one nurse for every two critical or intensive care patients, and the 2023 union contract has required a ratio of one nurse for each six patients in most other units.

But the hospital regularly violates those requirements, Barone said. The agreement streamlines the arbitration process for cases such as staffing complaints, and it explicitly empowers the arbitrator to issue "awards" when there are violations, Barone said.

"An award can be staffing, an award can be financial remedies," he said.

The contract also explicitly states that the union can take staffing disputes to court, Barone said.

It also requires St. Charles to hire 15 nurses to create a "float pool" to fill in gaps created by, for example, nurses who are sick or on vacation, he said. The accord also beefs up staffing in the labor and delivery unit.

"Our goal is to make sure we have safe staffing for the patients," he said.

Catholic Health had denied that staffing levels at the hospital are unsafe and pointed to its grade A safety rating from the nonprofit hospital-safety group, Leapfrog.

"The tentative agreement reflects a continued commitment to invest in our nurses and deliver excellent patient care," said Catholic Health spokeswoman Lisa Greiner in a statement.

She called the withdrawal of the strike notice "an encouraging step forward for our nurses, patients, and community."

The new contract also includes annual wage increases of 4%, 3% and 4%. With other pay increases, that would result in a total hike in salary for the average nurse of about 15% over the life of the contract, the union said.

Nurses, for example, currently receive an additional $1,200 a year in pay for each year of experience, on top of a base salary that currently is just over $107,000 a year, Barone said. That would be bumped to $1,300, he said. There also are increases in pay for later shifts and for education, he said.

The new contract also includes more security patrols and a "panic button" that nurses can carry with them, Barone said. Patients and family members sometimes become agitated with nurses, and there have been a few cases of assault against them, he said.

The new contract would run through March 31, 2029.

By David Olson

david.olson@newsday.com@DavidOlson11

David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.