Members of the Federation of Nurses/UFT ratified a new contract Thursday night that raises nurses' salaries at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn by a compounded 15.8 percent and requires the hospital to immediately work to hire 100 additional nurses to address chronic understaffing.

With the agreement, the nurses called off a potential strike slated to start Saturday, March 1.

"The contract gives our nurses the respect they deserve by raising salaries and requiring NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to hire the nurses they need to safely staff their hospital," said Anne Goldman, head of the Federation of Nurses/ UFT, which represents over 1,000 nurses at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn. "This opens the door to improving staffing, recruitment and retention and provides the economic equity our nurses have long deserved."

"Our nurses are the backbone of NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn," said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. "The nurses forced the hospital to start paying the competitive salaries they deserve, and they forced management to drop the excuses and acknowledge that it is their responsibility to correctly staff the hospital."

The two-year agreement:

• Provides a wage increase of 9.25% effective tomorrow, Saturday, March 1; and an increase of 6% effective March 1, 2026, for a compounded increase of 15.8 percent over the next 12 months. 
• Increases staff nurses' base pay to $125,282 by the end of the contract.
• Resolves the outstanding short-staffing complaints and pays nurses who worked the understaffed shifts a combined $1 million. 
• Requires NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn to post 100 full-time nursing positions by March 1 to help alleviate the chronic understaffing.
• Provides a one-time retention bonus ranging from $3,750 - $5,250 for nurses who remain in the same unit and shift for at least 18 months.
• Preserves premium-free health care.
• Guarantees an employer-paid pension.

"We had a focus - to increase our base salary to equal or surpass what was offered by the surrounding hospitals. We were determined to make this happen, for fairness and to be in a better position to recruit and retain nurses," said Moncef Righi, a nurse and union chapter leader at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn.

"Never underestimate the strength and dedication of nurses," said Linda Richards, an RN who works in the Operating Room and was a member of the Federation's negotiating committee. "This helps the nurses economically and helps the community because the hospital must hire more nurses."

"We were not going to back down," said Rebecca Morogiello, an RN and member of the negotiating committee. "The salaries are more livable and more representative of the work we do. We also forced the hospital to be accountable and pay for short staffing. We want people to be compensated if they work a shift that is understaffed, but the goal is to get the hospital to staff correctly."