The Strike Lives On

I became a nurse because I saw a need in my community for nurses who looked like me. I had spent my childhood translating and mediating between family members and medical professionals and realized I needed to be on the other side. However, when I became a nurse, I realized patients weren’t the only ones who needed advocates  — nurses did as well. While we are the ones who know our patients best, hospital management routinely sidelines our voices and ignores our needs. 

I became active in NYSNA very early on as a nurse at Maimonides Hospital. We fought for the same issues we fight for today — safe staffing, a voice on the job and respect. When NYSNA nurses launched our contract campaign at Maimonides in 1998, our employer wanted to take away our medical coverage and pension. We were on strike for four weeks. They were long and hard, but the longer we were out there, the stronger we got. After several weeks, we became more resolute and less willing to compromise. In the end, it became about respect. We went back into the hospital only after showing the hospital that we weren’t playing around. Maimonides nurses secured the first wall-to-wall ratios, created labor-management partnerships, and held monthly meetings to review every Protest of Assignment complaint. The strike was never about pay; it was about safety and respect. Going back to the hospital was very emotional. We learned our power, showed the hospital that we would never back down, and improved care. We inspired other workers, like our residents, to fight for their rights as workers.

Nearly Three Decades Later, The Fight Is Still About Safety

In 2023 and 2026, NYSNA New York City nurses went on strike again. From the very beginning, nearly 20,000 nurses at 12 private sector hospitals shared the goal of winning great contracts that deliver for nurses and our patients. Nurses at all 12 hospitals gave strike notices on Dec. 22, showing hospital executives that they were willing to strike if management didn’t get serious about bargaining. The safety net hospitals heard our demands and decided to invest in safe patient care rather than push their nurses out, likely remembering our relentlessness from decades before.

Safety Net Nurses Break Through

The safety net nurses won staffing improvements, a guarantee to continue our health benefits, and some groundbreaking protections from workplace violence and artificial intelligence and for our immigrant patients that helped raise the bar for other local bargaining units. These were all things that the richest hospitals refused to do.   

Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, and NewYork-Presbyterian faced some of the wealthiest, largest private employers in the city. These bosses dragged their feet at the table, launched vicious public relations (PR) and union-busting campaigns, and consistently showed that they prioritized profit over their patients.   

These hospitals came after our health benefits, our wages and our enforceable staffing standards. Not only did we beat back any takeaways, we succeeded in achieving enforceable, make-whole staffing standards in every New York City private sector hospital! We won groundbreaking protections for patients and nurses that can be the model for the rest of the country and improved standards throughout the city. Nearly 30 years later, at the end of the day, nurses are still willing to do whatever it takes to protect patient and nurse safety.

What was different this time around? 

Our employers are stronger. While almost every sector in America is shrinking, healthcare is growing. That means we aren’t just going up against healthcare institutions; we are going up against hedge funds, private equity firms, big PR firms and some of the greediest executives in the state who spend more than any other industry to lobby state-elected officials every year. 

But as a union, we are also much stronger. We have a larger voice and more elected and community allies, and we can use the media to wield power in ways that were unavailable to NYSNA members in 1998.

I’m proud to be a leader who isn’t afraid of strikes. Unlike so many unions in the country, we don’t just talk the talk; nurses walk the walk. And this past winter, we showed the entire world that we are a labor force to be reckoned with. People did not expect us to stand up in 1998, and 30 years later, the world is still shocked that the mighty nurses can hold the line longer and harder than anyone else. I want nurses to remember this: So many workers look up to you, see your actions as inspiration for their own advocacy and try to match the power that NYSNA nurses have.

While there were many moments that left me disgusted over the past few months — including the millions that hospitals spent to replace and degrade us and the constant return to wages in the public narrative — ultimately, I’m endlessly proud of what we achieved. Despite our bosses’ coordinated fight against nurses, after nearly 1.5 months on the picket line, nurses achieved contracts that will improve care for New Yorkers. We earned respect, and we showed the world what is possible.