97% of Nurses at Twelve NYC Hospitals Vote to Authorize Strike to Protect Patient Care
For Immediate Release: Dec. 22, 2025
Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489
97% OF NURSES AT TWELVE NYC HOSPITALS VOTE TO AUTHORIZE STRIKE TO PROTECT PATIENT CARE
Two Weeks Before Dec. 31 Contract Expiration, NYSNA Nurses Authorize Strike for 20,000 Nurses in the Five Boroughs
New York, N.Y. - On Monday, Dec. 22, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses announce the outcome of strike authorization votesthat took place at 12 New York City private sector hospitals whose contracts expire on Dec. 31, 2025. This vote gives their bargaining committees the authority to call a strike if a contract that protects safe patient care is not settled by the end of the year.
Amid federal attacks on healthcare, New York City nurses are demanding that hospitals do their part to protect safe patient care. That means agreeing to a fair contract that ensures enforceable safe staffing, enough staff and healthcare services for our communities, protections for vulnerable patients targeted by the Trump administration, health and safety and workplace violence protections, safeguards on the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, and fair wages and benefits to recruit and retain nurses.
Instead of agreeing to fair contracts that protect safe patient care, hospitals have responded to nurses’ demands with avoidance and delays. Employers have yet to make serious economic counterproposals, and some have proposed givebacks that would harm nurses’ ability to deliver safe patient care and would make it harder to hold hospitals accountable for maintaining safe staffing levels. Employers have refused to guarantee healthcare benefits for nurses, seriously jeopardizing healthcare for the healthcare providers of New York City.
Some hospitals have retaliated against nurses speaking out for a fair contract and improved working conditions. After an active shooter event brought safety issues at Mount Sinai into the public eye, Mount Sinai disciplined three outspoken nurses and has yet to rescind these disciplines or agree to concrete safety proposals despite weekly actions and vigils.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “We became nurses because we care about our patients deeply and do not take striking lightly. It is always a last resort. But it’s shameful that instead of trying to protect care and settle a fair contract, hospitals are dragging their feet and making proposals that would seriously erode care in this city. They should be trying to work with frontline nurses right now, not fighting against us. It’s shameful that they would try to hold healthcare coverage hostage for the nurses who care for this city’s communities.”
Montefiore mother-baby nurse Phiona Hunnigan-McFarlane, RN, said: “Three years ago, nurses at Montefiore went on strike to win enforceable safe staffing ratios throughout the hospital and to preserve the services our community needs. Now our hospital administration is trying to roll back this progress and cut corners on care—and that is unacceptable.”
New Yorkers currently face a healthcare affordability crisis. Hospital prices in New York have increased at a rate significantly faster than the national average, despite the city’s efforts to rein in costs. Between 2017 and 2021, healthcare costs nationwide rose by 14%; in New York, they rose by over 18%. These increases have not coincided with commensurate investments in patient care as revenue per patient is rising. For example, between 2011 and 2022, at NewYork-Presbyterian, the operating profit per adjusted discharge nearly doubled, rising from $3,780 to $6,854.
New York City hospitals are holding nurses’ healthcare hostage, refusing to agree to new rates or continue existing healthcare benefits. Nurses experience some of the highest rates of injury and workplace violence.
Mount Sinai West nurse and NYSNA Director at Large Denash Forbes, RN, said: “Nurses put our health, safety, and lives on the line every day caring for New Yorkers. We deserve to maintain good, affordable healthcare benefits. We deserve a contract that improves the safety of nurses, our patients and community, but instead Mount Sinai Hospital has retaliated against nurse safety advocates.”
While prices in healthcare go up, so does executive pay at the largest private sector hospitals. The city’s private hospitals have increased their executive compensation by millions and according to 990 tax filings, the CEOs of New York City’s three major academic medical centers, Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian increased their total compensation, including salaries, benefits, and perks, by over 54% from 2020 to 2023. The CEOs at Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian, the same ones who say they cannot afford to safely staff their hospitals, now make, on average, nearly 12,000 percent more than the registered nurses on the frontlines caring for patients.
In 2023, NewYork-Presbyterian CEO Steve Corwin raked in $14.6 million in total compensation — that’s over $1.2 million per month, and $40,000 per day.
NewYork-Presbyterian pediatric emergency room nurse and NYSNA Director at Large Aretha Morgan, MSN, RN, said, “Patients should be concerned about how hospitals are reacting to impending healthcare cuts. Instead of cutting from executive pay, risky new technologies, and money-making investments, they are proposing to compromise safe patient care by rolling back the staffing standards nurses worked hard to achieve. Nurses won’t stand by and watch them try to unravel staffing standards that have made such massive strides in helping hospitals cut back on wait times, reduce nurse burnout, improve patient care, and more. We will continue to fight until we get what our communities deserve.”
Flushing Nurse Practitioner and NYSNA Secretary Michelle Jones, RN, NP, said: “All New Yorkers deserve safe, quality care in their communities—whether they live on the Upper East Side or in the outer boroughs. We care for all New Yorkers, regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status. Nurses are fighting for safe staffing ratios, to be able to work in a safe environment, to have a voice in the use of technology and to protect our healthcare. We’re fighting for this here and in all our safety net hospitals.”
NYSNA Director at Large Ari Moma, RN, from One Brooklyn Health Interfaith Medical Center, said: “In all our New York City hospitals, we are united. We believe safe patient care is a right, not a privilege. Nurses are fighting to protect patient care in this contract and to make sure our patients have the staff and services they need. We are also fighting to make sure that we, the frontline nurses, have the healthcare we need to continue to care for you."
“Union members across the city and state, from the public sector, private sector, and building trades, are united in our support of the nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), who have been put in the unfortunate position of preparing for a possible strike,” said New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento. “It is time for the hospitals to treat these nurses fairly, with the dignity and respect they deserve, and to negotiate in good faith and quickly to ensure nurses can continue to serve their communities by providing superior care to their patients. They will continue to have the full resources of the New York State AFL-CIO at their disposal throughout this contract fight.”
“Nurses are on the front lines of protecting public health in New York City every single day,” said New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Brendan Griffith. “By voting to authorize a strike, NYSNA nurses are making clear that safe patient care can’t be delayed, negotiated away, or treated as optional. When hospitals drag out negotiations, fail to address workplace safety, or refuse to invest in staffing, it’s working people and their families who pay the price. Hospital executives have a responsibility to bargain in good faith and reach a fair contract that ensures safe staffing, protects healthcare benefits, and provides safe working conditions for nurses who care for our communities. The New York City Labor Movement stands with these nurses as they fight for a healthcare system that works for working people and puts patients first.”
NYSNA launched a new advertising campaign and website this fall that calls out hospital greed. Visit nychospitalgreed.com to learn more. Previously, nurses launched a website for New Yorkers to learn more about how to support NYSNA members: https://www.nursescareforny.org/
Nurses at the following 12 hospitals voted overwhelmingly to authorize strikes: BronxCare Health System, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Interfaith Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health, Maimonides Medical Center, Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center, Richmond University Medical Center, and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.
Three years ago, nurses at these hospitals also voted to authorize a strike and approximately 7,000 nurses at two private hospitals went on strike in January 2023. Nurses believe that striking is a last resort, and hope hospitals will make progress to settle a fair contract before their contracts expire on Dec. 31, 2025.
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The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country's largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.