Judge Orders Arbitration of Lawsuit Accusing Hospital of Failing to Protect Nurses from COVID-19

NEW YORK — A lawsuit in which a nurses’ union accuses a New York hospital of failing to adequately protect its employees from COVID-19 must be arbitrated pursuant to the terms of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement, a New York federal judge has ruled.

In a May 1 order, Judge Jesse Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York explained that he cannot issue an emergency injunction against Montefiore Medical Center pending arbitration because the Norris-LaGuardia Act “deprives federal courts of the jurisdiction to grant injunctive relief in labor disputes, except in limited circumstances.”