With contracts expired, nurses at New York City hospitals cite frustration

The largest union of nurses in New York City is voicing dismay that contracts at four large hospitals have expired without a new agreement being reached. The nurses believe that the hospitals--St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, St. Luke's-Roosevelt hospitals and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia--should be generous in their contract offers in light of the nationwide nursing shortage. Michael Fraser, a spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, said it was hard for hospitals to pay nurses more even though the nursing shortage was expected to grow worse.