With COVID-19 cases rising again, nurses at Albany Medical Center announced a work strike to protest what they said were unsafe conditions at the hospital.

The members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said on Friday that they will walk out of their jobs on December 1.

“If you enter the halls of this hospital, you cannot avoid seeing overcrowding of patients and not enough of us nurses to do the job,” said Lenore Granich-Berghela, a nurse and union negotiator. “A pandemic is not a time for understaffing or cutting corners, for failing to supply us with the equipment we need for our protection, and to keep our patients safe. It has created an unsafe work environment.”

NYSNA members have been vocal during the pandemic in alleging serious deficiencies in safety at Albany Med. The nurses cite critically low staffing levels and shortages of crucial equipment, which they say forces them to reuse masks.

Hospital administrators have said that Albany Med reprocesses its masks under federal guidelines, like the vast majority of hospitals in the state.

Nurses at Albany Med are negotiating with hospital management to reach their first contract since voting to join the NYSNA in 2018.