New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied with nurses in Manhattan on Tuesday, the ninth day of a strike affecting multiple major hospital systems, including Mount Sinai. The protest took place outside Mount Sinai West on the Upper West Side as the walkout continued after nurses began leaving their jobs Jan. 12.
Sanders and Mamdani addressed nurses at the rally, calling on hospital executives to return to the negotiating table to resolve the contract impasse. Sanders, speaking to a boisterous crowd, said: “The people of this country are sick and tired of the greed in this health care industry,” and later outlined concerns focused on hospital executives’ compensation. Mamdani told the crowd: “Now is your time of need, when we can assure that this is a city you don’t just work in, but a city you can also live in.”
The nurses union said it had held one bargaining session with each of the three affected hospital systems—Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian—since the strike began. The article said the sides characterized the hourslong meetings as producing little progress, and that there were no plans so far this week to resume talks.
Jonathan Hunter, a registered nurse at Mount Sinai and a member of the negotiating team, said of the discussions: “They offered us nothing. It was all performative.” The New York State Nurses Association met Sunday evening with Montefiore officials after negotiations Friday with Mount Sinai administrators, and the article said it negotiated Thursday with NewYork-Presbyterian officials.
Hospital administrators said they will follow the lead of contract mediators on when to meet again with union counterparts, and the article said each affected hospital negotiates with the union independently. The hospitals also disputed the union’s bargaining posture, saying the union is proposing pay raises amounting to a 25% salary increase over three years and that the request is unreasonable.
NewYork-Presbyterian said in a statement that NYSNA’s demands ignore economic realities of healthcare in New York City and the country, citing federal cuts to Medicaid as well as rising overall costs. The article said hospitals argued that their nurses are already among the highest paid in the city.
Outside Mount Sinai West, nurses and supporters marched in the cold while chanting “one day longer, one day stronger.” The article said taxi drivers honked their horns in support as the rally continued.
Nicole Rodriguez, a nurse at Mount Sinai West, said her biggest concern in the contract dispute is preserving her health care benefits. She said she has an autoimmune disease that causes her to get sick often and pass along illnesses to her child, adding: “If my son is not well, I’m not well, and I can’t be at the bedside and be the nurse I want to be.” She said: “I hope management opens their eyes to how much support we have out here, and they see that they need to reach into their pockets and give the nurses their health care.”
The union said hospitals are seeking to reduce nurses benefits, while the hospitals said they proposed maintaining current employer-funded benefits and that those benefits exceed what most private employees receive. The hospitals, meanwhile, said medical operations are running normally despite the walkout, saying they brought on thousands of temporary nurses to fill shifts and made financial commitments to extend employment.
Mount Sinai CEO Brendan Carr said in a statement to staff Monday: “Everyone who has come to work — including many who have gone above and beyond to support the operational response — is helping to save lives.”