Day 26 of Historic Nurse Strike: NYSNA Nurses Speak Out at Montefiore with Labor Allies and Elected Officials to Demand Fair Contracts that Protect Patients
**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TODAY, FEB. 6 AT 11 AM**
Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
DAY 26 OF HISTORIC NURSE STRIKE: NYSNA NURSES SPEAK OUT AT MONTEFIORE WITH LABOR ALLIES AND ELECTED OFFICIALS TO DEMAND FAIR CONTRACTS THAT PROTECT PATIENTS
Nearly 1 month into historic nurse strike, NYSNA nurses speak out with elected officials and labor allies at Montefiore Medical Center to demand hospital management settle a fair contract that protects patient and nurse safety
Nurses make progress at the bargaining table on workplace violence, safe staffing
New York, NY — On Feb. 6, NYSNA nurses will speak out with labor allies and elected officials at Montefiore Medical Center to demand that hospitals settle fair contracts that invest in New York City communities. On Day 26 of the historic nurse strike, nearly 15,000 NYSNA nurses continue to hold the line and demand that employers settle fair contracts that protect patient and nurse safety.
WHAT: NYSNA Nurses Speak Out with Labor and Elected Allies
WHO: NYSNA nurses including NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, and community and elected allies, including Sen. Gustavo Rivera, Assembly Member George Alvarez, New York City Council Labor Chair Shirley Aldebol, NYC District Council of Carpenters, and Westchester County Legislator Jenn Puja.
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 6 at 11 a.m.
WHERE: Montefiore Bronx, Jack D. Weiler Campus, 1825 Eastchester Road, Bronx, NY 10461
Nurses continue to bargain daily. Yesterday at the negotiating table, nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside and West reached tentative agreements on workplace violence. Nurses at Montefiore made progress on safe staffing.
Yesterday, NYSNA nurses held a day of action. They were joined by labor and community leaders from New York State AFL-CIO and NAACP at Mount Sinai Hospital. They also gathered outside of the League of Voluntary Hospitals and took direct action so that greedy hospital executives, billionaire board members, and their lobbyists could hear and see our resolve loud and clear. Nurses put their bodies on the line every day that they go to work caring for patients. Yesterday, they were willing to put our bodies on the line and risk arrest to advocate for patients, win the fair contracts nurses and patients deserve, and get nearly 15,000 New York City nurses back to work. Thirteen nurses were arrested in an act of civil disobedience and were released later that day.
Earlier this week, members from the New York City Progressive Caucus joined nurses on the strike line and heard about the safe staffing issues that are keeping them on strike. Nurses also marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to Foley Square and have held rolling actions at hospitals across the city.
Nurses continue to advocate above all else for safety. A recent study showed that hospitals rank among the most dangerous workplaces in New York state. Nurses know that addressing this requires that hospitals invest in safe staffing standards by hiring more nurses and protections against workplace violence.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “NYSNA nurses continue to call out hospital greed in every possible way. Hospital greed is what systematically disinvests in communities like the Bronx while investing in risky artificial technology, lobbying, outrageous executive pay, and expensive temporary travel nurses. NYSNA nurses are speaking up and demanding that they invest in our communities and put patients before profits.
NYSNA nurses from Montefiore, Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, and NewYork-Presbyterian continue to bargain at the Javits Center. Striking nurses continue to picket at all hospital locations. Nurses intend to continue bargaining until they settle fair contracts that protect patient and nurse safety and that bring nurses back to work immediately and unconditionally.
Nurses will continue to hold rolling actions on and off the picket line every day this week. The latest picket line times can be found at www.nysna.org/strike.
Hospital management has spent thousands on disrespecting and publicly denigrating nurses. Yet, year after year, nurses are voted the most trusted profession because they fight for their patients. In New York City, many nurses come from the communities they care for and mirror patient demographics. Across the city, 35.4% of nurses are Black or African American, 10.7% Hispanic or Latinx, and 20.9% are AAPI. Over two-thirds of NYC nurses are women of color, and, according to the American Immigration Council, 28.2% of all registered nurses in New York state are immigrants.
Hospitals have claimed that they are ready to bring back the nurses, but they continue to pay expensive temporary replacement nurses as much as $10,000 per week. Mount Sinai recently advertised for new temp contract assignments starting in mid-February. Before the strike even began, hospitals had already spent more than $100 million on temporary traveler nurses, who don't know New York City patients or communities.
Hospitals are threatening to not return nurses to work immediately, even after settling fair contracts. They have suggested they will prioritize respecting and extending their contracts with replacement workers instead of bringing back striking nurses. NYSNA nurses emphasize that the strike will not be over until all members return to work.
Key sticking points in bargaining remain:
- Management’s refusal to agree to safe staffing standards that protect patient care. NewYork-Presbyterian continues to propose safe staffing enforcement provisions that are weaker than those at every other NYSNA New York City hospital.
- Management’s refusal to agree to protections from workplace violence, despite a recent active shooter incident at Mount Sinai Hospital and the recent horrific violent incident at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Workplace violence is only getting worse and puts the safety of nurses and patients at risk.
While nurses have fought above all for safety, management has responded with retaliation, intimidation, and stalling.
Since before the strike began, Mount Sinai has responded to nurses’ demands for safety for nurses and patients with aggressive union-busting, unlawfully firing three labor and delivery by voicemail the night before the strike began. Mount Sinai previously unfairly disciplined 14 vocal nurse leaders. Some of those who were disciplined spoke to the press after an active shooter incident, and others had spoken to colleagues about their union and contract negotiations. NYSNA filed several Unfair Labor Practice charges against Mount Sinai for retaliation.
In addition to Mount Sinai’s intimidation, NewYork-Presbyterian has threatened job loss for striking and coerced RNs for exercising their right to strike. Montefiore has surveilled union nurses, in attempts to intimidate them and attempted to silence RNs. Montefiore also unlawfully restricted striking nurses’ access to healthcare at the hospital and unlawfully restricted their access to the hospital’s pharmacy to pick up their prescription medications. NYSNA has filed unfair labor practice charges at all three hospitals.
While NewYork-Presbyterian, Montefiore and Mount Sinai – three of New York City’s wealthiest private hospitals – are claiming they can't afford to settle a fair union contract that keeps nurses and patients safe, they likely have plenty of cash on hand to use to fight their own workers. As of September 2025, these three hospitals had on hand twice as much cash and cash equivalents as they had in 2017, even adjusting for inflation, holding onto over $1.6 billion dollars, showing that the safe staffing ratios nurses won years ago allowed them to continue to rake in profits.
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 2024, NewYork-Presbyterian CEO Steve Corwin raked in $26.3 million in total compensation — that’s over $2.1 million per month, and nearly $72,000 per day. In just one day, NYP CEO Steve Corwin made more money than many New York City families make in an entire year. New CEO Brian Donley made $5.4 million in salary, benefits and perks in 2024. He partnered with the infamous healthcare scam company Theranos during his time as a senior executive at the Cleveland Clinic. Donley was also the head of the Cleveland Clinic London from 2018 to 2022. During his tenure, he opened a UK outpost of a private hospital, working to lure National Health Service (NHS) doctors away from the public health system to work in a private clinic where patients needed expensive private health insurance.
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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.