Thousands of New York City nurses set to strike Monday if deal isn’t reached with hospitals

Nearly 15,000 New York City nurses are poised to strike on Monday, potentially creating significant disruptions at several major private hospitals during an already challenging flu season. The looming walkout, which would be the largest nurses strike in city history, threatens to impact operations at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

As of Sunday morning, negotiations between the New York State Nurses Association and hospital management had shown little progress, according to union president Nancy Hagans. The vast majority of union members voted to authorize the strike last month, setting the stage for a Monday morning walkout if no deal is reached.

The dispute echoes a similar labor fight from 2023, with staffing levels once again emerging as a central point of contention. Nurses claim that despite the hospitals’ substantial budgets, management is either refusing to commit to safe workload provisions or rolling back previously agreed-upon staffing guarantees.

“My hospital tries to cut corners on staffing every day, and then they try to fight historic gains we made three years ago,” said Sophie Boland, a pediatric intensive care nurse at NewYork-Presbyterian.

This year’s negotiations have expanded to include new concerns. The union is seeking protections against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings and demanding enhanced workplace security measures. These safety concerns follow recent violent incidents, including a November shooting at Mount Sinai and another incident this week where police fatally shot a man who had barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room with a sharp object.

Hospital administrators counter that they have made significant improvements in staffing since the 2023 strike and characterize the union’s combined demands as financially unrealistic. In a joint statement released Thursday, the hospitals called the strike threat “reckless” and promised to “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions” to patient care.

Mount Sinai has already hired over 1,000 temporary nurses and conducted preparatory drills for a potential strike that would affect its 1,100-bed main hospital and two affiliates — Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West — which together have approximately 1,000 additional beds. NewYork-Presbyterian has also arranged for temporary nursing staff but warned that some patients might need to be relocated or transferred to other facilities if the strike proceeds. Montefiore has assured patients that appointments will be maintained despite the potential disruption.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul expressed concern about the impact on patient care and urged both sides to “stay at the table and get a deal done.”

The previous nurses’ strike in 2023 lasted three days and significantly affected operations at Mount Sinai and Montefiore. During that walkout, hospitals postponed non-emergency surgeries, diverted ambulances, and transferred some vulnerable patients, including intensive-care infants. Although temporary nurses and administrators with clinical backgrounds filled in, patients reported longer wait times and noticeably reduced staffing levels.

That strike ended with an agreement that included 19% raises over three years and staffing improvements, including provisions for extra pay when nurses worked short-handed. However, the union now alleges that hospitals are retreating from those guarantees and failing to fulfill other commitments.

For instance, despite Montefiore’s agreement to “make all reasonable efforts” to stop keeping emergency room patients in hallways while waiting for beds, intensive care nurse Michelle Gonzalez reported that nurses are still scrambling to treat “hallway patients” three years later. Montefiore claims some progress, noting in an October letter to elected officials that they’ve achieved a 35% reduction in the time between emergency admission and placement in a clinical unit bed.

The hospitals maintain they have substantially reduced nursing vacancy rates since 2021, with Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center reporting the addition of hundreds of nursing positions during this period.

In recent days, potential strikes have been averted at several smaller facilities, including multiple Northwell Health hospitals on Long Island, where unions and management either reached agreements or made what the union considered sufficient progress in negotiations.

As Monday’s deadline approaches, both healthcare workers and patients throughout New York City remain in limbo, awaiting the outcome of these critical negotiations during what is already a challenging time for the healthcare system.