Where NYC nurses stand as strike moves through second week

Striking members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) reached their second week on the picket line in below-freezing temperatures. The union has still not come to contract agreements with Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai, and New York-Presbyterian, and negotiations toward a deal remain at a standstill.

The nurses are looking for contract agreements that would offer them comprehensive healthcare coverage, better, enforceable staffing ratios, enhanced workplace safety, protections for vulnerable patients, preservation of ongoing pension plans without reductions, and the development of a model AI language system to guarantee that patients are consistently attended to by a qualified nurse at their bedside. 

Union representatives met with NewYork-Presbyterian management on Thursday, Jan. 15, and with Mount Sinai management on Friday, Jan. 16, alongside federal mediators in bargaining sessions that extended past midnight.

NYSNA says it presented revised contract proposals to improve safe staffing and on-the-job safety and to maintain health benefits, but that its proposals were not accepted. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital representatives offered no counterproposals.

Mount Sinai Hospital, which did offer a counterproposal, said in a press statement, “[T]he parties spent most of the day exchanging proposals on immigration, construction and renovation, and substance abuse treatments, but did not make substantial progress on any issue.

“Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside negotiators shared two proposals that had already been agreed to at The Mount Sinai Hospital, one on artificial intelligence and the other on support for nursing mothers, and the union did not agree to either one. In the case of Mount Sinai’s AI proposal, NYSNA’s negotiators sent back a counter and said they would never agree to elements of the proposal, even though it was identical to what was already settled at Mount Sinai’s other bargaining table.”

NYSNA President Nancy Hagans came out to talk with striking union members on Jan. 20, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, at Mount Sinai West. Credit: NYSNA

Both negotiations were described as making “very little progress,” and no additional bargaining sessions were initially scheduled. Representatives from Montefiore Health System had not yet met with NYSNA to negotiate. The union claimed the hospital did not answer the mediator’s call to meet on Friday, January 16. But hospital reps said no such meeting was ever planned.

The back-and-forth between Montefiore and NYSNA has remained sharp. The hospital has publicly said the union’s demands are drastic. “Until they can back away from their reckless and dangerous $3.6 billion demands,” a Montefiore spokesperson has stated, “progress overall will not be possible. In the meantime, we continue to provide the world-class care our communities deserve.”

But NYSNA reps announced on Jan. 21 that, at the urging of Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani, negotiations will resume with Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian on Jan. 22, even as picketing continues.

NYSNA members, meanwhile, have been very visibly out on the picket line to take part in the largest nurse strike in New York City history. They participated in a speak-out in front of Mount Sinai Morningside in Upper Manhattan on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, alongside Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders. And then, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, they were joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Zohran Mamdani in front of Mount Sinai West.

NYSNA President Nancy Hagans dismissed claims by the hospitals that say they cannot afford new union contracts. “You have the richest hospitals saying they cannot afford our medical coverage; they cannot afford to give us work violence protection,” she told the throng of nurses outside Mount Sinai West. “Lies! But they are willing to spend $100 million on replacement nurses that are not as qualified as us!

“My message to you, greedy corporates — Mount Sinai, Montefiore, New York-Presbyterian — spend the money in the community! Spend the money on your nurses!”

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