NEW YORK — Nearly 16,000 nurses at some of New York City’s largest private hospitals are gearing up to go on strike Monday.
The fight between the New York State Nurses Association and the Montefiore, Mount Sinai and New York-Presbyterian health systems is nearing a boiling point after months of contract negotiations have yielded little progress on key sticking points, from pay raises and health insurance coverage to financial remedies when units are understaffed.
The union dialed up the pressure with a rally Friday outside the Midtown Manhattan offices of the Greater New York Hospital Association and the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York, a group that helps bargain on behalf of hospitals in contract negotiations.
"These hospitals are more toxic than my ex," one union member's sign read.
The nurses pointed to a shooting Thursday night at New York-Presbyterian’s Brooklyn Methodist Hospital as a fresh example of the urgency of their demands for more protections against workplace violence. They have also been pressing hospital management for contract provisions restricting entry by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
"We are going to continue to fight to get what we feel our patients and our communities deserve," Michelle Gonzalez, a Montefiore Medical Center nurse, said during the rally.
The union, whose three-year contracts with 12 New York City hospitals expired at the end of last year, already agreed not to strike at several safety-net facilities that largely serve low-income patients who are on Medicaid or uninsured. But negotiations with the three largest and wealthiest health systems with expired NYSNA contracts have come to a relative standstill.
“They’re ready for us to walk on Monday,” Beth Loudin, a pediatric nurse for New York-Presbyterian, told rally attendees.
One prominent ally — Mayor Zohran Mamdani — has been conspicuously absent as the clash intensifies. The union endorsed Mamdani days after his Democratic primary win, but he has not spoken publicly about the negotiations since taking office on Jan. 1.
A strike would cause major headaches for the fledgling administration, but he has few levers to pull at City Hall to influence the negotiations. The city’s emergency management department helps coordinate any response to service disruptions that impact public safety or access to essential services. In the event of a strike next week, the department has existing plans that can be activated to ensure continuous access to emergency medical care and coordinate patient transfers, spokesperson Aries Dela Cruz said.
Mamdani, however, has an influential bully pulpit that he could use to put pressure on the two sides.
The mayor’s office did not respond to several emailed requests for comment over the last week on the looming nurses strike.
One individual briefed on the negotiations, who was granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO there has been so little back and forth on core economic issues, such as wages, that they believe a strike appears increasingly inevitable.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order Friday declaring a state disaster emergency, citing an “immediate and critical need” to supplement hospital staffing due to the imminent strike. The order suspends certain health care licensure laws through Feb. 8 to enable doctors, nurses and other health care workers in good standing to practice in New York.
“This could jeopardize the lives of thousands of New Yorkers and patients, and I’m strongly encouraging everyone to stay at the table — both sides, management and the nurses — until this is resolved,” Hochul said in a social media video announcing the order.
The union initially proposed annual 10-percent wage increases to all the hospitals involved in this round of negotiations and has gone down slightly in counterproposals. Montefiore, Mount Sinai and New York-Presbyterian spokespeople said the union’s requested raises would cost them billions of dollars at a time when they're already preparing for federal health care cuts in President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Mount Sinai, for one, countered with lump sum increases of $4,000 to $4,500 to nurses’ total compensation package, which includes their health benefits.
“A rally doesn’t change the fact that NYSNA leadership’s demands are unreasonable,” Brian Conway, a spokesperson for the Greater New York Hospital Association, said in a statement Friday. “There’s a reason why they’re not talking about their wage demands, in particular — because even they know it’s wildly divorced from economic reality.”
In an unusual show of unity for ostensible competitors, all three health systems issued a joint statement this week asking union leadership to reconsider striking. Hospitals have spent over $100 million to date to prepare for a potential strike by bringing in temporary nurses, according to the Greater New York Hospital Association.
"NYSNA leadership has chosen to abandon patients in their time of need, but Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai, and New York-Presbyterian will not. Their decision to walk out on our patients can only be described as reckless,” the organizations said in the statement. “A strike will pose challenges for sure, but our institutions will do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions to the delivery of the safe, high-quality care we are known for.”
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