TODAY: Day 25 of Historic Nurse Strike: NAACP, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Other Allies Join Strike Line, and Nurses Take Action at League of Voluntary Hospitals
**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TODAY, FEB. 5 AT 11 AM AND 1 PM**
Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
DAY 25 OF HISTORIC NURSE STRIKE: NAACP, PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE WILLIAMS AND OTHER ALLIES JOIN STRIKE LINE, AND NURSES TAKE ACTION AT LEAGUE OF VOLUNTARY HOSPITALS
11 AM: labor and community leaders from New York State AFL-CIO and NAACP join NYSNA nurses on the strike line at Mount Sinai Hospital
1 PM: NYSNA nurses take direct action at the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes
Nurses reach tentative agreements on artificial intelligence protections at all hospitals, continue making progress towards winning fair contracts
New York, NY — On Feb. 5, nearly 15,000 NYSNA nurses continue to hold the line on the largest and longest nurse strike in city history and demand that employers settle fair contracts with nurses. In a day of action, nurses will gather with labor and community leaders from the New York State AFL-CIO and NAACP at 11 a.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital in honor of Black History Month and the thousands of Black nurses on strike who continue to fight for their patients and their communities. Then at 1 p.m. NYSNA nurses will gather for direct action at the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes to call on hospital executives and lobbyists to put patients over profits.
Yesterday at the bargaining table, nurses reached tentative agreements on artificial intelligence protections at all hospitals. They also reached several more tentative agreements on local hospital issues.
Yesterday, 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 were joined by City Council Members Carmen De La Rosa, Althea Stevens, Tiffany Cabán, Sandy Nurse, Alexa Avilés, Kayla Santosuosso, Christopher Marte, Rita Joseph and Justin Sanchez. Earlier in the week, nurses marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to Foley Square and held rolling actions at hospitals across the city.
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.
WHAT: Day of Action
WHO: NYSNA nurses and community and elected allies
WHEN/WHERE:
11 AM: NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, NYC Council Hospitals Chair Mercedes Narcisse, L. Joy Williams, President, NAACP NY State Conference, Anthony Harmon, Special Assistant To The Secretary-Treasurer, New York State AFL-CIO join NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, and Nurses on Strike Line at Mount Sinai Hospital
1468 Madison Avenue, New York, NY
AND
1 PM: Direct Action with NYSNA Nurses at the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York
555 W 57th St, New York, NY
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.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “On this day of action, NYSNA nurses are showing that they are committed to the fight for safe staffing and will not stop until they get the contract that nurses and patients deserve. We’re calling out greedy hospital executives and demanding that hospitals invest in our communities. We are 15,000 strong and will continue to raise our voices for our patients until we can get back to the bedside.”
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.
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.