Student Supports Nurses on Day 5 of Strike: “The Nurses Took Care of Me. I’ll Never Forget That”

NURSES WHO ARE members of New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), continued their strike action which began on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, outside Montefiore Medical Center on East 210th Street in Norwood, The Bronx, on Friday, Jan. 15, 2026. Video 3 Video by Síle Moloney

As reported, Montefiore refutes this claim, though as of Thursday, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) told Norwood News negotiations were not, at that point, taking place. He was hopeful the parties would return to the table on Friday. Please refer to our previous story for Montefiore’s complete response to the nurses’ demands.

Lorino continued, “So, I’m here to show my support as a citizen, as a student, as a fellow worker, and yeah, I’ll be here as long as it takes.” We asked Lorino, if he wanted to say if perhaps he had personal experience of the hospital system as a patient. “Listen, as a New Yorker, I’ve benefited from the welfare that we have here and the great welfare that we have here in our state. I have Medicaid and it’s helped me in my life. When I was younger, I was a chronic asthmatic and I had a health experience where I had to be rushed to hospital.”

He continued, “Again, it’s the nurses who took care of me. I’ll never forget that, and again the Medicaid that I have, the insurance that I have, I’m grateful that I don’t ever have to worry about oh my God, Am I going to be able to afford this bill? Oh my God, can I go to the hospital? Maybe I should put it off, especially now that there’s so many stories about the flu spreading throughout the country. The first pediatric death I think was in New Jersey. It’s very sad that I think a lot of people don’t go to the hospital because of that reason (cost) and that is the reality.”

He concluded, “Our nurses are here. They’re workers, I’m a worker. At the end of the day, when the time comes, I’m going to support them, one hundred percent.”

NURSES WHO ARE members of New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), continued their strike action which began on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, outside Montefiore Medical Center on East 210th Street in Norwood, The Bronx, on Friday, Jan. 15, 2026. John Jay College student John Merino is seen opposite the picket line holding a sign in support of the nurses at the end of the video. Video by Síle Moloney

As reported, also on Friday, Dr. Brendan Carr, CEO of Mount Sinai Hospital System, said the mediators at The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai West, and Mount Sinai Morningside asked both parties (nurses and management) to reconvene at the bargaining table, and said the teams were scheduled to meet Friday.

“While we continue to work toward a deal, we also continue to make progress toward getting our hospitals operating at full capacity,” he said. “We have extended our contracts for agency nurses to ensure we have a workforce willing to provide care to our patients. We are onboarding an additional complement of agency nurses focused on specialty areas so that we can rapidly bring our scheduled surgical volumes back to normal.”

He added, “I had the privilege of visiting with some of our teams from Finance and Digital and Technology Partners yesterday. I plan to spend some time with our amazing Human Resources team today. These teams have worked incredibly hard to rapidly onboard a large number of new employees over the last few weeks, and although much of their work may not always be visible on the front lines, they are incredibly important to our mission. Thank you everyone at the bedside and behind the scenes for the amazing work. Our patients and your colleagues thank you.”