New York City nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association went on strike for a third day Wednesday, pushing for new contract terms that they say address health care, safe staffing and workplace violence. The walkout, which began Monday morning, is affecting multiple campuses of three private, nonprofit hospital systems: Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian.
None of the three hospital systems affected by the strike have met with union negotiators, according to the report. A NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson said hospital administrators planned to meet with their union counterparts on Thursday evening, while the sides have not met since Sunday before the strike.
The union’s leaders held a rally and picketing activity at a Bronx hospital on Wednesday, taking aim at hospital administrators who they said are mischaracterizing the union’s contract demands. Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently, and the report described both sides as preparing for a longer work stoppage.
Roughly 15,000 nurses unionized under the New York State Nurses Association went on strike Monday at multiple campuses of the three systems. Mount Sinai, however, suggested not all unionized nurses are in lockstep; it said the share of union nurses still on staff rose from 20% Tuesday to 23% Wednesday, as more nurses opted to continue working rather than join the picket line.
Hospital systems also indicated that the strike’s impact is not uniform across all facilities they operate. Other private hospital systems in the city reached tentative deals with the union, averting walkouts at their facilities, and city-run public hospitals are not affected by the strikes.
The union said the top concerns for members include health care, safe staffing and workplace violence, and it pointed to emergency rooms that it says are overcrowded, workloads it says have become unmanageable, and what it says are insufficient security measures. Erika Perrotta, an emergency room nurse at Montefiore, told the rally Wednesday that many patients are frequently left in hallways because there are no rooms, saying, “It’s unacceptable.”
Phiona Hunnigan-McFarlane, also a Montefiore nurse and a rally speaker, said she was punched to the ground by a troubled patient. She told the crowd that her injuries were so severe that she had to have her family take care of her while she was out of work for six months.
The hospitals said they are willing to provide pay raises but argued the union’s salary demands are too costly, describing them as “extreme” and “exorbitant.” Montefiore said the union’s proposal would raise the average nurse salary to $220,000 in three years, while Mount Sinai said it would raise salaries to nearly $250,000, with unionized nurses’ salaries currently averaging around $163,000 a year across the three systems.
On security, Montefiore said its protocol is “best-in-class” and includes weapons detection systems, armed New York City police officers stationed around-the-clock, internal hospital security personnel and wearable panic buttons issued to nurses. The company also criticized what it said is a union proposal that would prevent nurses from being fired even if they are found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job.
Union officials responded that Montefiore is “stigmatizing” those dealing with substance abuse issues while “blatantly mischaracterizing” a “non-controversial measure” already being implemented around the state. City officials, meanwhile, have not raised problems so far in the early days of the walkout, and hospitals urged patients not to avoid getting care during the strike while staffing gaps are covered with temporary, contract nurses.
Mount Sinai said its emergency department was managing a 25% increase in patient registrations in the early days of the strike, which coincided with the busy flu season. The Greater New York Hospital Association said hospitals canceled scheduled surgeries, transferred patients from more specialized units and increased discharges in the days leading up to the strike to streamline and reduce the number of patients they’re serving.
A patient who visited Montefiore’s Bronx hospital on Wednesday, Ruth Villanueva, said she did not have any issues and that the hospital appeared to be operating as usual. She told the story, “They’re still the same. Nothing that is coming out different,” adding that she believed nurses deserved better pay.
Nurses last walked off the job in 2023, when a three-day strike affected Mount Sinai and Montefiore and led to a deal raising pay 19% over three years at the two systems. That pact included provisions aimed at nurses’ staffing and workload concerns, and the union said hospitals are trying to walk back those guarantees in the current contract talks.