Nearly 15,000 nurses will go on strike this morning, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). Nurses voted to authorize this strike last month if an agreement was not met over this past weekend. NYSNA says that the strike includes nurses from medical centers in Manhattan and the Bronx that are operated by Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and New York-Presbyterian.
The walkout is occurring simultaneously at multiple hospitals, but each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Other hospitals across the city were able to reach agreement deals in the last few days, avoiding the walkout. However, NYSNA says failure to reach an agreement “will impact nearly 27,000 nurses at over 50 hospitals in the state enrolled in the association’s health benefit plan”.
NYSNA leaders have stated that the main goals for a new contract with hospitals are increases in pay, better health benefits, safe staffing levels, limitations on hospitals’ usage of AI, and more protection from workplace violence. Just last week, a man with a sharp weapon threatened hospital staff at New York-Presbyterian Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn. Another incident occurred last November when an active shooter entered the Manhattan Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Spokespeople from the hospitals involved claim that the union’s demands are too expensive, especially in light of anticipated federal cuts to healthcare funding. Montefiore’s senior VP of strategic communications, Joe Solmonese, has said, “NYSNA’s leaders continue to double down on their $3.6 billion in reckless demands, including nearly 40% wage increases.” Hospitals involved have resorted to hiring temporary nurses to fill labor gaps during the walkout, in preparation for the possibility of the strike lasting weeks.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined picketers outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights. In a statement, he announced, “At every one of our city’s darkest periods, nurses showed up to work. Their value is not negotiable and their worth is not up for debate… We know that during 9/11 it was nurses that tended to the wounded. We know that during the global pandemic, it was nurses that came into work even at the expense of their own health. They showed up even when we didn’t have protective equipment for them. They showed up even as others were staying home… Bottom line: They showed up.”
