Nurses Deliver Strike Notice at Catholic Health/ St. Charles Hospital
For immediate release: June 30, 2026
Contact: Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489
Joe Celestin | press@nysna.org | 518-776-8337
NURSES DELIVER STRIKE NOTICE AT CATHOLIC HEALTH/ ST. CHARLES HOSPITAL
Strike Slated to Begin July 13 Unless St. Charles Agrees to a Fair Contract that Protects Safe Patient Care
Approximately 300 NYSNA Nurses at St. Charles Preparing to Strike
On Eve of Consolidation with Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, Nurses Announce Potential Strike
Port Jefferson, N.Y.—On Tuesday, June 30, 2026, NYSNA nurses at Catholic Health/ St. Charles Hospital delivered a strike notice to hospital executives. Dozens of nurses marched to St. Charles Hospital President James O’Conner’s office to notify the hospital that they will strike beginning Monday, July 13, unless management negotiates a fair contract that delivers safe staffing and fair wages.
On June 12, 2026, St. Charles nurses announced that a near-unanimous 99.7% of nurses voted to authorize a strike. Nurses have been bargaining for months, and enforceable safe staffing has been the key sticking point in negotiations.
St. Charles administrators continue to frequently understaff nurses; even after nurses filed hundreds of complaints to enforce the safe staffing standards in their contract, a New York State Department of Health (DOH) investigation found nearly 200 violations of the safe staffing law, and the hospital signed an agreement committing to hire and staff more nurses.
In May, nurses compiled 244 unresolved staffing complaints—the most complaints of any month in the 18 months since the DOH began their investigation. St. Charles hospital executives are flouting New York’s safe staffing law, the staffing standards in the nurses’ contract, and putting patient safety at risk.
With safety conditions seemingly deteriorating instead of improving, nurses are prioritizing a contract that helps them hold the hospital accountable for safe staffing to protect safe patient care.
President of NYSNA’s local bargaining unit at St. Charles Hospital and intensive care nurse Rob Barone, RN, said: “Nurses need strong staffing enforcement in our contract to hold our hospital accountable. Hospital management promises safer staffing and fails to deliver time after time. Our nurses, patients and community deserve better.”
Nurses also allege St. Charles management is treating them unfairly. NYSNA has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the hospital for refusing to release the corrective actions they will take to resolve the staffing violations that DOH found, and trying to silence nurses’ voice at work
NYSNA negotiating committee member at St. Charles, Kim Bowman, RN, said: “Striking is always a last resort, but nurses are willing to do whatever it takes to win a contract that will help us deliver the excellent care our community deserves. Our friends and family rely on this hospital, and we aim to make sure there are always enough nurses at the bedside to deliver quality care.”
Tracy Kosciuk, RN, a post-partum nurse who has worked at St. Charles for 38 years, said: “Mothers and babies deserve the time, attention and care of a nurse who is not stretched thin juggling too many other patients. We are tired of our hospital’s excuses and failure to recruit and retain enough nurses. We hope they come to their senses and bargain a fair contract that safely staffs the hospital we love."
St. Charles nurses are among approximately 1,000 Catholic Health nurses at three hospitals currently negotiating contracts. The contract for NYSNA nurses at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage expired on March 31, and the contract for NYSNA nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown is set to expire July 31. NYSNA nurses at all three hospitals are united in demanding contracts that deliver safe staffing, protections from workplace violence, and fair wages.
They have launched a petition campaign, organized in their community, and done joint campaign days at their hospitals to win fair contracts.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “Nurses do not take striking lightly, but the chronic understaffing that our St. Charles nurses and patients have suffered is giving them no other option. We are calling on Catholic Health/ St. Charles Hospital to do the right thing and deliver safe staffing for the Port Jefferson community.”
NYSNA nurses have won strong contracts on Long Island and in New York City in the last year. In January 2026, more than 1,000 NYSNA nurses at Northwell/Huntington Hospitals, Northwell/Plainview, and Northwell/Syosset won fair contracts that delivered safe staffing and fair wages just days before they were scheduled to strike. In January and February 2026, approximately 20,000 nurses at 12 New York City hospitals won contracts that improved enforceable safe staffing standards, protected health benefits, protected nurses from workplace violence, protected immigrant patients and nurses, safeguarded against artificial intelligence, and increase wages by more than 12% over the life of the three-year contracts. Nurses at three of those hospital systems went on the largest and longest nurse strike in New York City history.
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The New York State Nurses Association represents approximately 45,000 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.