Nurses at two New York City hospitals returned to the picket line Wednesday as their strike entered its third day.

Roughly 7,100 nurses at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx went on strike Monday morning after negotiations between hospital leadership and their union, the New York State Nurses Association, failed. 

Montefiore, which has been negotiating with NYSNA since Monday, returned to the bargaining table with union members Wednesday morning, the union told NY1. Mount Sinai has also resumed negotiations and was back for talks on Wednesday as well, according to the union and sources.

Nurses picketing outside Montefiore’s Moses Campus in the Norwood section of the Bronx Wednesday morning held signs and repeated chants calling for an increase in staffing at their hospitals. 

“The key sticking point in negotiations is making sure there are enough nurses at the bedside to safely care for patients,” NYSNA said in a statement. “Neither Mount Sinai nor Montefiore have agreed to nurses’ proposals to enforce safe staffing levels.”

Nurses at Montefiore’s Moses Hospital, Weiler Hospital, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Westchester Square and NYSNA-staffed ambulatory care locations are striking, Montefiore said on its website. 

In a statement posted to its site, the institution said the strike began “despite Montefiore’s offer of a 19.1% compounded wage increase — the same offer agreed to at the wealthiest of our peer institutions — and a commitment to create over 170 new nursing positions, and despite a call from Governor [Kathy] Hochul for arbitration.”

Mount Sinai echoed Montefiore’s assertion in its own statement, saying NYSNA “refused to accept the exact same offer of a 19.1 percent wage increase over three years that it agreed to at eight other hospitals, including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, and disregarded Governor Hochul’s proposal for binding arbitration to avoid a strike.”

Prior to the strike, agreements had been reached at Mount Sinai West, Mount Sinai Morningside, NewYork-Presbyterian, Maimonides Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center and Flushing Hospital Medical Center, according to NYSNA.

On Tuesday, the union voted to ratify contracts with Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, following successful ratification votes on contracts with Maimonides Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian over the weekend.

Montefiore on Monday said all elective surgeries and appointments at their ambulatory locations would be rescheduled. 

“Patients scheduled for elective surgeries and procedures at Moses, Weiler and CHAM will receive a text, email or call regarding rescheduling,” the hospital said on its website.

Mount Sinai, meanwhile, released its contingency plan last week, noting that it would begin diverting a majority of ambulances from their facilities, cancel some elective surgeries and transfer patients — including babies in the neonatal intensive care unit — to other hospital systems amid a potential strike.

Mount Sinai also sent over an internal memo to their staff on Wednesday, stating that operations “are becoming increasingly stable,” adding that “hundreds of additional travel nurses are arriving and are being oriented.”

Montefiore, on the other hand, has started involuntarily reassigning licensed practical nurses to fill in for striking nurses, according to 1199SEIU, which represents 300 LPNs.

“As a union, we have an obligation to defend our members’ rights and our contracts,” 1199SEIU said in a statement on Wednesday. “LPNs should not be told to work outside their scope of practice or in hospital and emergency settings they are unaccustomed to, potentially jeopardizing patient care or their professional licenses.”

“At difficult times like these, we must always strike a tender balance to fully protect workers’ rights while also ensuring that patients continue to receive the lifesaving care they need,” 1199SEIU continued.

Gov. Hochul took questions from the media about nurses striking on Wednesday, saying that progress has been made but “we are at a step back right now.”

“We have to continue supporting our nurses, and also make sure that our patients and people who are sick in this community get the high-quality care they are entitled to,” Hochul said. “I understand very directly the stresses that our nurses have been under even before the pandemic and they need our help and they need our support and they need a good wage.”