15,000 New York Nurses Strike for Safe Staffing, Quality Care

Approximately 15,000 private-sector nurses in New York City have entered the third day of their largest strike in the city’s history. Nurses are fighting for safe staffing levels, fair compensation, and stronger workplace and patient protections – demands that hospital leadership at medical centers including Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian have stalled addressing since last year.

“After months of bargaining, management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections,” the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said on Monday, January 12. “Unfortunately, greedy hospital executives have decided to put profits above safe patient care and force nurses out on strike when we would rather be at the bedside of our patients,” added NYSNA President Nancy Hagans. “It is deeply offensive that they would rather use their billions to fight against their own nurses than settle a fair contract.”

On the picket lines, nurses told BreakThrough News that hospital executives had refused to discuss pay increases for frontline staff while continuing to earn millions themselves. “They won’t give us raises yet the CEO is making USD 24 million,” one striker said. Dolores Steele of NYSNA added that NewYork-Presbyterian’s management was misrepresenting the union’s demands. “NewYork-Presbyterian is inflating the numbers we’re asking for,” she said. “We’re not asking for nurses to make USD 270,000 a year, which is what they’re saying. We are asking for realistic increases because of where we live in the economy. And if we have a CEO who makes USD 26 million a year, they can afford it.”

According to NYSNA, executives at three major medical centers increased their total compensation by more than 50% between 2020 and 2023. “The CEOs at Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian, the same ones who say they cannot afford to safely staff their hospitals, now make, on average, nearly 12,000% more than the registered nurses on the frontlines caring for patients,” the union said.

Source: NYSNA/X

At the same time that hospital leadership refused to negotiate wage increases, it spared little energy and financial resources to discredit the workers’ campaign and demands. Instead of permanently employing new staff, hospital management spent millions on temporary replacements. As the strike approached, nurses described multiple attempts to discourage the circulation of information about negotiations and union activity. Just hours before the industrial action began, Mount Sinai fired three labor and delivery nurses who had participated in organizing efforts.

“What management did was pure intimidation,” two of the nurses, Berina Selimovic and Liliana Prestia, said. “Our unfair terminations were Mount Sinai’s attempts to scare other nurses and keep them from joining the strike line. But nurses weren’t scared. They still walked out in the largest action this city has seen.”

Despite this intimidation and attempts to discredit their struggle, the strike has garnered support from NYC elected officials including newly-inaugurated Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani himself showed up to a picket line on day 1 of the strike and was met with cheers.

Mayor Mamdani says he stands with the nurses on strike, and is urging “all parties return to negotiating table, and bargain in good faith”. @1010WINS @NYCMayor pic.twitter.com/X9EHUGVOpb

— Mary-Lyn Buckley (@ml_buckley) January 12, 2026

The union also warned that hospital leadership had spent significant resources on public relations campaigns aimed at minimizing the relevance of issues raised by workers. “In their fight against frontline nurses advocating for their communities, Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian hired Risa Heller’s PR firm, best known as the ‘PR firm for really bad people,’ which has represented clients like Harvey Weinstein, Jared Kushner and the Sackler family,” NYSNA stated on Wednesday. “Montefiore has routinely prioritized their image over their nurses and patients. While disinvesting from the Bronx, Montefiore reportedly spent over USD 75 million in 2023 on advertising and promotion.”

In January 2023, NYSNA led a 7,000-strong nurses’ strike, winning major gains on staffing and pay. With the current action, nurses are once again showing their determination to continue fighting for patient safety and dignified working conditions in the healthcare system.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch