Registered Nurses At St E’s Approve New Contract

Registered nurses at St. Elizabeth Medical Center have come to terms on a new contract with hospital management.

The New York State Nurses Association announced late Wednesday night that nurses at St. E's overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year contract, which will run through June of 2019. The union says the contract calls for the addition of five full-time employees, an increase in wages by 9% over the length of the contract and changes to health insurance.

The deal was announced just hours before the nurses' one-day strike was set to begin. The hospital planned to respond with a four-day lockout of the nurses, and had been said they would use replacement nurses during that time.

**Information from the Associated Press was used in this report