| Amid COVID Nurses Sued
Montefiore Hospital For N95 Masks SDNY Judge
Furman Urges Agreement
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 3 – Nurses sued The
Bronx' Montefiore Medical
Center amid the COVID-19
pandemic in order to get N95
masks, to make the hospital
comply with staffing ratios
with respect to ventilators,
enforce the visitor policy and
ensure Coronavirus testing of
RNs on demand, including
antibody testing.
In a court
hearing apparently only
covered by Inner City Press,
the NYS Nurses Association on
April 21 asked for a temporary
restraining order before U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Jesse M.
Furman.
Montefiore, represented by
Proskauer Rose, opposed the
relief that was being
requested.
Now in a
decision that amNY
attributed to Judge
"Fruman," Judge Furman has
apparently with a heave heart
dismissed the case while
urging agreement. the Court is
deeply sympathetic to both
sides: Nurses are among the
heroes of this moment, putting
their own lives at risk each
and every day in an effort to
save the lives of others; and
the challenges facing
hospitals — extraordinary
demand and dwindling
resources, with lives hanging
in the balance — are
undoubtedly staggering.1
The Court is not ultimately
tasked with resolving the
parties’ dispute — under the
terms of the parties’
collective bargaining
agreement (“CBA”), the dispute
is subject to arbitration, and
NYSNA has initiated the
arbitration process.
Instead, the
Court is asked only to enter
an injunction pending that
arbitration. But there is a
significant threshold obstacle
to granting even that limited
form of relief: The
Norris-LaGuardia Act (“NLGA”),
29 U.S.C. § 101 et seq.
“deprives federal courts of
the jurisdiction to grant
injunctive relief in labor
disputes, except in limited
circumstances.” Niagara Hooker
Emps. Union v. Occidental
Chem. Corp., 935 F.2d 1370,
1375 (2d Cir. 1991) (“Niagara
Hooker”) (citing 29 U.S.C. §
101).
NYSNA contends
that the injunction it seeks
falls within a limited
exception to the NLGA that
traces back to Boys Markets,
Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union,
Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 254
(1970). See Pl.’s Br. 15-19.
Specifically, it contends that
it is entitled to a “reverse
Boys Markets” injunction, id.
at 16 — “a status quo
injunction against an employer
when the employer’s action has
the effect of frustrating the
arbitral process, or rendering
it a hollow formality.”
Niagara Hooker, 935 F.2d
at 1 Given the
equities on both sides and the
fact that the parties are
better equipped to address the
complex issues involved in
balancing nurse safety and
patient care in these
challenging times than the
Court is, the ideal resolution
here plainly would have been
an amicable one."
Might it
still be? The case is, or was,
NYS Nurses Association v.
Montefiore Medical Center,
20-cv-3122 (Furman).
***
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