Filipino nurses in NYC join protest for better benefits, staffing

NEW YORK CITY — Hundreds of Filipino nurses working in public hospitals here have joined a protest rally calling for better benefits and additional manpower.

"We cannot retain nurses, everybody is leaving and the city is hiring agency nurses and it costs them more instead of giving that to us," said  Laiza Romero, one of the protesters outside Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

Romero said from four to five patients being handled by one nurse, the number has increased to 10 to 14 patients per nurse.

She said nurses in public hospitals are transferring to private hospitals for better wages and safer working environment.

Reena Silva, a nurse at Queens Hospital which is under the New York City Health + Hospital system, meanwhile lamented that from being treated as heroes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses now seem to be forgotten.

"It's so unfair that after the pandemic we are zero hero now. So we need a fair contract at this time, so we beg for support for nurses in New York. We have a lot of Filipinos nurses — male, female Filipino nurses — and we are struggling for a fair staffing every time," said Silva.

According to John Bahia from the office of Steve Raga, the first Filipino-American elected as New York State Assemblyman, they would monitor the negotations between the nurses' group and the city government. —Dave Llavanes Jr./KBK, GMA Integrated News