Thousands of nurses at some of New York City’s biggest hospitals could begin a strike Monday if no agreement is reached in negotiations with hospitals during a severe flu season, the New York State Nurses Association said. The union’s president, Nancy Hagans, said as of Sunday morning little progress had been made at the bargaining table.
The looming work stoppage could impact operations at several major private hospitals, including Mount Sinai in Manhattan, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Hagans said nearly 15,000 nurses could walk off the job early Monday if a deal is not reached, which she said would be the largest nurses strike in city history. She also said a vast majority of the union’s nurses voted to authorize the strike last month.
The current bargaining is the latest version of a labor fight that, in 2023, involved a strike threat and pressure on staffing levels at some of the same hospitals. Nurses said staffing levels remain the “major flashpoint,” alleging the medical centers are refusing to commit to — or have been backsliding on — provisions intended to support manageable, safe workloads.
This time, the union also wants “guardrails” on hospitals using artificial intelligence and additional workplace security measures. The AP said those demands come amid incidents that included a gunman entering Mount Sinai in November and a man with a sharp object barricading himself in a Brooklyn hospital room this week; both men were killed by police.
On Friday, scores of nurses rallied in Manhattan, saying their primary concern is caregiving and accusing the medical centers’ leadership of greed and intransigence. Sophie Boland, a pediatric intensive care nurse in the NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system, said, “My hospital tries to cut corners on staffing every day, and then they try to fight historic gains we made three years ago.”
The hospitals’ position is that the strike threat is reckless. The AP reported that hospitals called the union’s threat “reckless” and vowed in a statement Thursday to “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions.” Hagans also stressed that patients should not delay care during a potential strike, while Gov. Kathy Hochul expressed concern that a strike could affect patient care and urged both sides on Friday “to stay at the table and get a deal done.”
Hospital systems have been preparing for the possibility of a walkout. Mount Sinai has hired over 1,000 temporary nurses and held preparatory drills for a strike that could affect its 1,100-bed main hospital and two affiliates — Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West — with about 500 beds each. NewYork-Presbyterian said it arranged for temporary nurses as well and that, if the strike happens, some patients might be moved to new rooms or advised to transfer to another facility. Montefiore posted a message assuring patients that appointments would be kept.
The AP said the same union mounted a three-day strike at Mount Sinai’s flagship facility and Montefiore in 2023, emphasizing sacrifices during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and a national nurse staffing crisis. During that walkout, hospitals postponed non-emergency surgeries, diverted many ambulances to other destinations and transferred some intensive-care infants and other patients, the AP reported. Temporary nurses and even administrators with clinical backgrounds were tapped to fill in, though nurses and patients noticed longer waits and more sparsely staffed wards.
The 2023 strike ended with an agreement on raises totaling 19% over three years and staffing improvements, including extra pay if nurses had to work short-handed. Now, the union says the hospitals are retreating from those guarantees and falling short on other promises, including provisions meant to limit unsafe emergency-department crowding.
Montefiore, for example, agreed to “make all reasonable efforts” to stop keeping some emergency room patients in hallways while they wait for space in other wards, but Michelle Gonzalez, a Montefiore intensive care nurse, said nurses still scramble to treat “hallway patients.” The hospitals say they have reduced nursing job vacancy rates over the past three years and added hundreds of nursing positions, with Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center saying they have added staffing.
The AP reported that in recent days, some smaller hospitals, including multiple Northwell Health facilities on Long Island, averted potential walkouts by striking deals or making what the union viewed as adequate progress.