Striking Nurses Demand Fair Contracts and Immediate Reversal of Unlawful Disciplines
**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY, JAN. 15**
Contact: Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
STRIKING NURSES DEMAND FAIR CONTRACTS AND IMMEDIATE REVERSAL OF UNLAWFUL DISCIPLINES
Striking nurses from Mount Sinai Morningside to hold 11 a.m. press conference on fourth day of city’s largest nurse strike to call out hospitals’ refusal to protect healthcare for nurses while lying to the media and intimidating nurses
Gallop poll released this week once again ranks nurses as the most trusted profession
New York, NY— Striking NYSNA nurses will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. at Mount Sinai Morningside to demand management come to the table in good faith to negotiate a fair contract. Instead of agreeing to fair contracts that protect patient and nurse safety, the city’s wealthy hospitals have tried to roll back safe staffing, push forward cuts to healthcare coverage, and reject our solutions to address workplace violence.
Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian have waged war against union nurses; retaliating against nurses, slandering nurses, and even terminating nurses in attempts to intimidate them. NYSNA nurses are demanding that hospital executives reverse the unlawful disciplines and terminations and come back to the bargaining table to make real progress.
Despite some New York City hospitals’ attempts to demean nurses, earlier this week, Gallup released their annual poll of the most trusted professions. Once again and for more than 20 years, Americans have rated nurses as the most honest and ethical profession.
Nurses and hospital executives head back to the table with the help of a mediator in scheduled sessions on Thursday evening and Friday.
Thursday is the fourth day of the largest nurse strike in New York City history with nearly 15,000 NYSNA nurses who are on strike demanding hospitals take action to protect patient and nurse safety, including agreeing to maintain health benefits for frontline nurses.
WHAT: NYSNA Strike and Strike Line Press Conference
WHO: NYSNA nurses and allies, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, New York State Senator Cordell Cleare, Assembly Member Jordan Wright, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, Assembly Member Tony Simone, Hotel Trades Council SEIU President Rich Maroko, PSC CUNY, and Doctors Council
WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 14 at 11 a.m. Press Conference
WHERE: Press conference:
Mount Sinai Morningside, 1111 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian need to get serious about meeting our demands for safety. If struggling safety-net hospitals can figure out how to fund our health benefits, safely staff our hospitals and protect nurses from workplace violence, then the richest hospitals can figure it out, too. Instead of investing millions in fighting their own nurses, hospital executives need to do the right thing and work with us to improve safety.”
NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane, RN, CNOR(e), said, “Hospital executives are driving up the costs of care while crying they cannot afford to fund nurses’ healthcare. We’re calling out their bluff and are out here on the streets of New York because patients need to know too. Hospital executives are continuing put their profits before the communities of New York and enough is enough.”
Yesterday, nurses at Montefiore spoke out for safe staffing, workplace violence prevention, and the need for good health benefits. They shared stories of overcrowded conditions that leave patients with little privacy and of assaults nurses have experienced that kept them out of work. They demanded that Montefiore invest in patient care in the Bronx, where there are huge health disparities, instead of wealthy zip codes.
Mount Sinai continues to threaten cuts to healthcare coverage for striking nurses while retaliating against nurses who care for our communities. Along with some of the wealthiest hospitals in New York, these hospitals have dramatically driven up the cost of care yet complain at the bargaining table that maintaining healthcare coverage for their nurses is too costly. While New Yorkers face an affordability crisis, New York City’s wealthiest private hospitals are charging patients nearly 4 times what it actually costs to provide care in 2023. Labor costs are included in the cost of providing care so while greedy hospital executives argue that nurse salaries are to blame for higher patient care prices, the data disputes this argument.
New York City’s wealthiest hospitals have increased prices more than the rest. Hospitals across the city increased how much they charge patients for care by about 150 percent between 2011 and 2023. But Mount Sinai jacked up prices by 213 percent. Mount Sinai is not alone. NewYork-Presbyerian is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for colluding with insurance companies to keep prices high for New York City patients.
Cuts to healthcare coverage would impact not just striking nurses at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside and West and NewYork-Presbyterian, but approximately 44,000 nurses and their families at over 50 hospitals around the state who are enrolled in NYSNA’s health benefit plan. Nurses refuse cuts at all costs because they work in a high-risk high-injury profession and rely on good health benefits to stay at the bedside.
Although Montefiore has not threatened the same cuts to nurses’ health benefits, they have tried to deny access to care for striking nurses. Yesterday, NYSNA filed unfair labor practice charges against Montefiorefor preventing nurses from accessing their and their families’ medications from the hospital pharmacy.
Mount Sinai attempted to make examples of nurses planning to strike by firing three nurses, two of whom were new mothers. Mount Sinai unlawfully terminated these three labor and delivery nurses via voicemail. With a looming strike deadline, management tried to scapegoat nurses, citing false claims about their interference with the expensive travel nurses hired to replace them. They were not deterred and spoke up about this injustice. Mount Sinai previously unfairly disciplined 14 vocal nurse leaders leading up to the strike, some of whom spoke to the press after the active shooter incident, and others who spoke to colleagues about their union and contract negotiations.
In their fight against frontline nurses advocating for their communities, Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian hired Risa Heller's PR firm, best known as the “PR firm for really bad people,” which has represented clients like Harvey Weinstein, Jared Kushner and the Sackler family.
NYSNA nurses began their strike on Monday, Jan. 12, after management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections. Key sticking points and open issues remain: management’s threats to cut healthcare benefits for the frontline nurses who care for New York City, management’s attempt to roll back safe staffing standards that nurses won when they went on strike at two major hospitals three years ago, and 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.
Until management agrees to fair contracts that protect patients and nurses, strike lines continue daily beginning at 7 a.m. at:
- Mount Sinai Hospital, 1468 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029
- Mount Sinai Morningside, 1111 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025
- Mount Sinai West, 1000 Tenth Ave, New York, NY 10019
Montefiore Bronx Locations:
- Jack D. Weiler Campus, 1825 Eastchester Road, Bronx, NY 10461
- Montefiore Bronx, Henry & Lucy Moses Campus, 111 East 210th Street, Bronx, NY 10467
- Montefiore Bronx, Montefiore Hutchinson Medical Center, 1250 Waters Place, Bronx, NY
NewYork-Presbyterian locations:
- NewYork-Presbyterian Allen, 5141 Broadway, New York, NY 10034
- NewYork-Presbyterian CUMC, 177 Fort Washington Ave, New York, NY 10032
- 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. They have flaunted the more than $100 million they’ve collectively spent on temporary replacement nurses.
NewYork-Presbyterian, Montefiore and Mount Sinai – three of New York City’s wealthiest private hospitals – claim they can’t afford to settle a fair contract. 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.
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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.