{"id":97866,"date":"2026-01-12T22:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/97866\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:05:07","slug":"mayor-zohran-mamdani-raises-eyebrows-by-joining-15k-striking-nyc-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/97866\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani raises eyebrows by joining 15K striking NYC nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani flashed his Democratic socialist colors Monday as he meddled in a heated contract dispute \u2014 joining thousands of striking nurses<\/a> from Big Apple private hospitals on the picket line.<\/p>\n

The controversial move put the lefty mayor at odds with the CEOs at at Mount Sinai, New York-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center, whom he called out as \u201cthe wealthiest in the entire city\u201d while griping that \u201cthese executives are not having difficulty making ends meet.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital executives who run these hospitals, the ones where these hardworking nurses are asking for what they deserve, these executives are not having difficulty making ends meet,\u201d Mamdani said alongside striking staffers outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital\/Columbia in Washington Heights. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut for too many of the 15,000 NYSNA nurses who are on strike, they are not able to make their ends meet,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are not asking for a multimillion-dollar salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani joins city nurses on the picket line outside of New York Presbyterian Hospital on Monday. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

Thousands of nurses in red rallied outside the Manhattan hospital, hooting and rattling noisemakers. They held signs with phrases such as \u201cAt least the blood on our hands washes off\u201d and \u201cNurses are the beating heart of the medical system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hospital officials and the New York State Nurses Association have traded barbs, accusing each other of being greedy<\/a>\u00a0in disputes over wages, benefits and staffing \u2014 with vitriol spewing from both sides \u2014 as 15,000 staffers began striking Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey bragged that they spent $100 million to hire out-of-town nurses to replace us while we strike,\u201d NYSNA president Nancy Hagans said.<\/p>\n

People rally for the striking nurses. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could have easily have put that money toward our health insurance,\u201d she said. \u201cNurses are asking for safe staffing. We\u2019re asking for work protection against workplace violence. We\u2019re asking for the greedy CEOs not to take away our medical coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics questioned why Mamdani, who oversees the city\u2019s public hospital system, would take sides in the prickly labor dispute, something Mayor Eric Adams shied away from during a 2023 nurses\u2019 strike.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s open support for the private hospital nurses could backfire if the tables are ever turned, one hospital official who asked to remain anonymous said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the Mayor will learn that his public hospitals are next in line to face NYSNA\u2019s costly and unsustainable demands\u2014leaving taxpayers to pick up an even bigger tab,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

The stalemate between the three major medical systems<\/a> and the striking nurses got off to an acrimonious start \u2014 with one of the healthcare giants accusing the union of attempting to protect members who show up for work drunk or stoned.<\/p>\n

Nurses on strike in New York City with signs saying \u201cOn Strike for Patient and Nurse Safety\u201d and \u201cNurses Deserve Good Healthcare Benefits.\u201d John Angelillo\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The accusation came from brass at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, which accused the New York State Nurses Association of striking to prevent tougher discipline against<\/a> inebriated hospital workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYSNA leadership\u2019s demand that a nurse not be terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job is another example of putting their own self-interest before patient safety,\u201d Montefiore said in a statement to The Post Monday.<\/p>\n

NYSNA shot back:\u00a0\u201cMontefiore\u2019s desperate attempt to slander New York City\u2019s nurse heroes shows just how low they are willing to go to avoid settling fair contracts that protect Bronx patients and nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMontefiore nurses are fighting for safe staffing and protections from workplace violence,\u201d the union said. \u201cMeanwhile, hospital executives show their disrespect for nurses by refusing to agree to our proposals to protect patient and nurse safety, and blatantly mischaracterizing one of our basic workplace proposals, which hospitals around the city and state have already adopted. If Montefiore wants to demonize and stigmatize substance use disorders, then they shouldn\u2019t be allowed to call themselves a healthcare facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

One nurse on the picket line at Montefiore rolled her eyes and called the claim \u201ccomplete BS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani could put himself in a tough spot siding with private hospital nurses if public nurses strike. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you honestly think if one of our staff showed up she\u2019d be allowed to keep her job?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s completely ridiculous to imply that drunk nurses have anything to do with why we\u2019re striking, and if anything, it\u2019s degrading to us to imply that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur strike has nothing to do with protecting nurses who, if they show up to work drunk or high, clearly shouldn\u2019t be working in a hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

An image on Instagram, meanwhile, showed a bar in Brooklyn \u2014 Block Hill Station \u2014 offering buy-one-get-one-free beers to help strikers fighting \u201cfor patient safety and fair staff benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLove this! Free beer!\u201d the post said, alongside prayer hands emojis. \u201cAll Striking Nurses: Buy One Get One On Select Beers.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the two sides were duking it out, everyday New Yorkers could pay the price. <\/p>\n

About 15,000 nurses and staffers at three private hospital systems in New York walked off the job on Monday. AP<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s \u2018man-of-the-people\u2019 move with striking nurses has irked some of the lefty mayor\u2019s critics. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wait was longer. The transfusion was longer. Normally things move very efficiently, but that wasn\u2019t the case this time,\u201d said Luis Del Valle, who brought his 89-year-old mother for a weekly transfusion at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital\/Columbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything just took longer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got through it, but it wasn\u2019t fun. I\u2019m definitely hoping this gets resolved before our next appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Javier Morales. whose brother was in the ICU with pneumonia, had a similar gripe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely felt like a staff shortage,\u201d he said. \u201cMy brother needs a lot of monitoring, and normally the nurses are in and out constantly. But there was a lot more waiting. Call buttons take longer. No one dropped the ball, but it does make me nervous. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou get accustomed to a certain standard of care, of things running a certain way, and I didn\u2019t see that today,\u201d Morales said. \u201cIf something big goes down, or if a lot of emergencies happen all at once, I don\u2019t get the feeling that the nurses on staff can handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani flashed his Democratic socialist colors Monday as he meddled in a heated contract dispute \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1948,26920,57,26613,22195,9,22196,23187,56,63,65,64,23289,58,82],"class_list":["post-97866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-hospitals","tag-labor-strikes","tag-metro","tag-montefiore-medical-center","tag-mount-sinai-hospital","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-presbyterian-hospital","tag-nurses","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-strikes","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97866","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=97866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}