Federation of Nurses/UFT members on the front lines of the coronavirus battle are finding strength in each other and in their union at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn and at Staten Island University Hospital South.

When the UFT negotiated its 2018 contract with the city Department of Education, it followed the strategy used by the Federation of Nurses/UFT, which I lead, because of our past success at the bargaining table.The workforce can have a voice, not only in hospitals or schools, but in contract negotiations as well.

Federation of Nurses/UFT members on Jan. 29 ratified a contract with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York that raises salaries, protects members’ pensions and existing health care benefits, and improves safety provisions.

“The same way parents ask questions about class size, I want every patient to ask questions about the staffing ratio in hospitals,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said as he welcomed nurses to the Westin Grand Central in Manhattan on Nov. 22 for the 40th annual Professional Issues Conference of the Federation of Nurses/UFT.

Safe staffing enables patients to get the care they deserve when hospitalized — and it must be locked in by legislation.

“You have different skills, certification and education, but you all have the ability to stand up in the middle of chaos — no matter how crazy it gets — and say, ‘This person matters,’” Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT and the UFT vice president for non-DOE members, told the nurses attending the union’s sixth annual Nurse Recognition Day on April 30.