NEW YORK: Thousands of nurses in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend yielded no breakthroughs in disputes with three major hospital systems over staffing, benefits and other issues.
“Nurses on strike! ... Fair contract now!” nurses shouted on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s campus in Upper Manhattan. Others picketed at hospitals in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore systems, where a 2023 nursing strike fed off pandemic-era frustrations and led to a deal to boost staffing and pay.
“And now, it’s how they’re treating us: They don’t want to give us a fair contract, and they don’t want to give us safe staffing, and now they’re trying to roll back on our benefits,” emergency department nurse Tristan Castillo said Monday outside Mount Sinai West.
About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to their union, the New York State Nurses Association. The hospitals remained open, hiring droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap.
The strike involves private, nonprofit hospitals, not city-run ones. But the walkout, which the union casts as lifesaving essential workers fighting hospital executives who make millions of dollars a year, could be a significant early test of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new administration.
The democratic socialist campaigned on a pro-worker platform and struck a similar note while visiting nurses on the NewYork-Presbyterian picket line Monday.
“These executives are not having difficulty making ends meet,” said Mamdani, who extolled nurses’ work and said they were seeking “dignity, respect and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve. They should settle for nothing less.”
Some other Democratic city and state politicians also visited striking nurses, while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sent state health officials to the hospitals to keep watch over patient care. She called in a statement for the sides to negotiate a deal that “recognizes the essential work nurses do.”
The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures or divert ambulances, though the medical centers insisted they were prepared and committed to meet patients’ needs. The walkout could also put a strain on other city hospitals if patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.
The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but staffing levels are a top issue. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.
Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents such as an episode last week when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.
The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.
The hospitals say that they’ve improved staffing in recent years and that the union’s demands overall are too costly.
Mount Sinai said the union was making “extreme economic demands.” Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said the union was pressing ”$3.6 billion in reckless demands,” including exorbitant raises.
The union didn’t immediately respond to a question about its salary proposal and current wage levels. According to the hospitals, unionized registered nurses now average $165,000 a year at Montefiore, $162,000 at Mount Sinai, and $163,000 at NewYork-Presbyterian’s Columbia University Irving Medical Center; none of the numbers includes benefits.
Montefiore says the union’s asks would raise the average to $220,000 in three years. Mount Sinai says the average there would hit $275,000.
After the nurses gave notice Jan. 2 of the looming strike, the hospitals vowed to “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions” and said they were prepared to deliver care no matter how long the strike lasts. Mount Sinai said in a statement Monday it had lined up 1,400 temporary nurses.
New York-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption.”
“We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s health care environment,” the hospital said.
Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other private hospitals in and near New York City reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.
The three-day strike in 2023 resulted in a deal raising pay 19 percent over three years at Mount Sinai and Montefiore. The pact also included staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.
The sides also dispute whether the hospitals are trying to reduce health benefits. Mount Sinai, for instance, says its proposals would cut costs without changing coverage.