{"id":106389,"date":"2026-01-20T21:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106389\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T21:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:33:09","slug":"sanders-and-mamdani-protest-with-striking-nyc-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106389\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders and Mamdani protest with striking NYC nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socialist hero Bernie Sanders and devoted prot\u00e9g\u00e9e Mayor Zohran Mamdani protested with striking Big Apple nurses<\/a> Tuesday \u2014 taking aim at hospital CEOs\u2019 big-bucks salaries.<\/p>\n

The pair of Democratic socialists tore into the hospitals at odds with the New York State Nurses Association during the city\u2019s biggest nursing strike in history,<\/a> claiming the money poured into top honchos\u2019 pay and and the traveling nurses needed to cover shifts during the work stoppage is being wasted and should go toward the frontline workers.<\/p>\n

Lefty Bernie Sanders calls out hospitals\u2019 CEO pay in remarks to striking Big Apple nurses Tuesday. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

But the trio of hospitals targeted by the strike \u2014 NewYork Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and Montefiore \u2014 have assailed the nurses\u2019 demands as grossly unaffordable, with the two sides dueling over salary, health benefits, staffing and workplace safety.<\/p>\n

Since Jan. 12, more than 15,000 nurses have been off the job.<\/p>\n

The nurses\u2019 union brought in Sanders and Hizzoner to rally the troops outside Mount Sinai West in Manhattan in below-freezing temperatures \u2014 with hordes of strikers then being packed into buses about an hour later to be driven off to the other two hospitals to continue demonstrating.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoes Sanders\u2019 sentiments. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t tell me you can\u2019t provide a good nurse staff ratio when you\u2019re paying your CEO at New York Presbyterian $26 million a year,\u201d Vermont Sen. Sanders boomed. \u201cThe CEO at Montefiore \u2014 $16 million a year. Mount Sinai \u2014 $5 million a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t tell me you can\u2019t treat nurses with dignity when you\u2019re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on traveling nurses,\u201d the former presidential candidate said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also ripped into the hospitals, arguing the strike is about safe working conditions and a fair contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Bernie said, it\u2019s not about the money,\u201d the 34-year-old lefty pol said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was, we would be talking about compensation packages. We\u2019d be talking about the amount of money spent on traveling nurses. What this is in fact about is about recognizing the worth of each and every nurse in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

An association representing the hospitals disputed the fiery remarks, calling the union leadership\u2019s demands \u201cflat-out unaffordable\u201d in a statement.<\/p>\n

The largest nursing strike in city history entered its ninth day Tuesday. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd not much has happened at the negotiating table to change that,\u201d Greater\u00a0New York Hospital Association President Ken Raske said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital revenue picture is bleak, too. Senator Sanders has always strongly opposed funding cuts to hospitals, but despite his best efforts, the One Big Beautiful Bill cuts $8 billion from New York hospitals,\u201d Raske said, in reference to President Trump\u2019s signature legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

NY-Presbyterian said in a Tuesday statement that it would be \u201cunreasonable\u201d to cave to NYSNA\u2019s demands because the\u00a0\u201chealthcare landscape has never been more challenging and uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hospital claimed the nurses wants a 25% pay hike over the next three years \u2014 but a union rep countered that proposal has not been on the table for months.<\/p>\n

The union argued numbers that the hospitals are citing are \u201cinflated calculations\u201d to distract from other pressing issues such as health benefits, staffing and safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cStriking nurses are ready and willing to come to the table and bargain whenever the mediators call,\u201d the representative said. \u201cWe are willing to compromise on salaries, but not on hospital safety.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Sanders and Mamdani offered vocal support, nurses rallied for nearly an hour at Mount Sinai West before they boarded nine buses to picket at different hospitals. \u00a0<\/p>\n

About 100 nurses remained at the Midtown West medical facility to demonstrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Socialist hero Bernie Sanders and devoted prot\u00e9g\u00e9e Mayor Zohran Mamdani protested with striking Big Apple nurses Tuesday \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5057,26920,57,26613,22195,9,23187,56,63,65,64,58,82],"class_list":["post-106389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-labor-strikes","tag-metro","tag-montefiore-medical-center","tag-mount-sinai-hospital","tag-new-york","tag-nurses","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}