reporter: good morning, jim and erica. negotiations are stalled. both here at mt. sinai and at monty hospital miin the bronx. the main sticking point is safe staffing. that is the ratio of patients to nurses. nurses on the picket lines right now growing frustrated that there have been no movement on these negotiations. and this is just not a new york city issue. this is an issue that is happening across the country. with these unequal ratios of patients to nurses. that in turn creates a situation where it is really hard to hire nurses and that creates labor shortage and then perpetuates this issue of ratios. it is a vicious cycle, jim and eric erica. so we know that hospitals had some warning of the strike and tried to make efforts to replace the nurses during this time.