NYSNA Update: April 10, 2026
NYSNA Speaks Out to Protect New York’s Essential Plan and Patients
On Friday, NYSNA Board Member Sonia Lawrence, BSN, RN, spoke at NYC Health+Hospitals/Lincoln alongside labor and elected allies — including the Committee of Interns and Residents/Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Doctors Council/SEIU, Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, Democratic Socialists of America and others — to demand that Albany use funding to fill in federal funding gaps in the Essential Plan. If the state doesn’t do more to protect our communities, nearly a half million New Yorkers on the Essential Plan could lose coverage this summer. Lawrence and others spoke about how vital it is for the state to use its own funds to continue the Essential Plan. Our state needs to use existing revenues and resources to step in where our federal government has tragically abandoned us and tax the rich to pay for the services that keep New Yorkers healthy; otherwise, our patients and communities will suffer.
SIUH Nurses Take Action
On April 3, NYSNA members at Northwell/Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) told Northwell management: NYSNA nurses will not tolerate short staffing and unjust discipline! When Northwell/SIUH unjustly terminated two senior nurses, NYSNA members at the hospital circulated a petition demanding their reinstatement. By the time grievance hearings took place, members had gathered over 600 petition signatures. On Friday, members followed up these hearings with a march on the boss to deliver the petition. There can be no mistake: When Northwell/SIUH short staffs and scapegoats nurses, NYSNA nurses will not back down!
President Nancy Hagans Pens Opinion Editorial
Check out the recent op-ed that President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, wrote that is in City & State. In it, Hagans talked about why nurses walked out in our historic private sector strike and why it matters. She wrote about how the strike unfolded amid looming cuts to federal healthcare funding and yet rewrote the terms of care in the city, securing safety for nurses and patients when hospitals complained it wasn’t possible. She put the strike in context and explained how nurses’ victories have set templates for future contract fights and inspired workers to achieve more. “New Yorkers rely on hospitals to be anchors in good times and bad. If we are to meet that responsibility, we must invest in the people who do the work, regulate the technologies that enter the bedside and stabilize the public funding needed for quality care. That is what our nurses fought for this winter. That is what we won. And that is what patients across this city and across this country deserve.” To read more, click here.