NYSNA Nurses Resume Picket Lines as Largest Nurse Strike in NYC History Continues into 3rd Week
For Immediate Release: Jan. 27
Contact: Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
NYSNA NURSES RESUME PICKET LINES AS LARGEST NURSE STRIKE IN NYC HISTORY CONTINUES INTO 3RD WEEK
Nurses continue to fight for protections from workplace violence and safe staffing after securing agreement on maintaining healthcare benefits
NYSNA and management at all four hospitals return to the bargaining table on Tuesday, Jan. 27, picketing continues outside hospitals.
New York, NY— On Tuesday, Jan. 27, nurses and management return to the bargaining table, and NYSNA members remain ready to bargain every day until they settle fair contracts. Striking nurses will continue to picket outside hospitals and will be joined on the picket line by our colleagues from CIR/SEIU at 6 p.m. at Mount Sinai West.
Over the weekend, nurses made major progress toward protecting their high-quality healthcare —a key sticking point in bargaining at Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian. Management at Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian signed an agreement with NYSNA that maintains NYSNA Plan A health benefits with no cuts.Nurses continue to fight for fair contracts that protect patient and nurse safety. Safe staffing to ensure that every patient has a qualified nurse at their bedside and protections from workplace violence remain top priorities at the bargaining table.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “Nurses overcame a major hurdle in protecting their healthcare benefits after hospitals threatened to cut care for frontline nurses and our families. This victory is a vital step toward settling fair contracts, but our fight is not over yet. Safe staffing and protections from workplace violence remain our outstanding priorities. We will be out in the cold every day for as long as it takes, along with our allies and community, until we make sure that every nurse is safe in their workplace and every patients is able to receive the quality care they deserve, no matter what zip code they live in.”
On Sunday, Jan. 25, NYSNA nurses fought and cleared a major hurdle on one of the key sticking points in bargaining—maintaining health benefits for frontline nurses and our families. Working through mediators, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian agreed to maintain the current high-quality NYSNA Plan A health coverage without cuts. Hospitals and NYSNA must still reach final tentative contract agreements.
Over the past two weeks of the strike, nurses have held vigils with families and patients, welcomed elected officials and allies, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, gathered in non-violent actions, and held speak-outs at all four hospitals. Press is free to use photos and videos from NYSNA’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
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.
While hospitals continue to inflate both nurses’ demands and the cost to their systems while citing unfavorable economic conditions, they continue to rake in profits. In the first three months of 2025, Mount Sinai health system posted more than $1.2 billion in revenue from Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side, a 20% increase over the same period last year. They made these gains while saving cash in anticipation of spending millions on temporary travel nurses.
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. And they’ve already spent more than $100 million on temporary traveler nurses, who don't know New York City patients or communities.
Key sticking points in bargaining remain:
- Management’s attempt to roll back safe staffing standards that nurses won when they went on strike at two major hospitals three years ago. These safe staffing standards ensure that patients receive the time and attention they need from nurses and that nurses are not overburdened with patients. Safe staffing standards mean better care for patients.
- 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.
On Tuesday and throughout the week, strike lines will start at the following times and locations:
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 9am-4pm: Mount Sinai Hospital, 1468 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 9am-4pm: Mount Sinai Morningside, 1111 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 9am-4pm: Mount Sinai West, 1000 Tenth Ave, New York, NY 10019
Montefiore Bronx Locations:
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 9am-4pm: Jack D. Weiler Campus, 1825 Eastchester Road, Bronx, NY 10461
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 9am-4pm: Montefiore Bronx, Henry & Lucy Moses Campus, 111 East 210th Street, Bronx, NY 10467
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 10am-2pm: Montefiore Bronx, Montefiore Hutchinson Medical Center, 1250 Waters Place, Bronx, NY
NewYork-Presbyterian locations:
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 8am-4pm: NewYork-Presbyterian Allen, 5141 Broadway, New York, NY 10034
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 8am-4pm: NewYork-Presbyterian CUMC, 177 Fort Washington Ave, New York, NY 10032
Tues., Jan. 27-Fri., Jan. 30: 8am-4pm: NewYork-Presbyterian CHONY, 3959 Broadway, New York, NY 10032
While nurses have fought above all for safety, management has responded with retaliation, intimidation, and stalling.
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.
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's outgoing CEO Steve Corwin raked in $26.3 million in total compensation — that’s over $2.1 million per month, and nearly $72,000per day. In just one day, NYP CEO Steve Corwin made more money than many New York City families make in an entire year.
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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.