Strike Looms As NYC Nurses Authorize Walkout At 12 City Hospitals

BROOKLYN, NY — Nurses at 12 hospitals across New York City have voted by an overwhelming margin to authorize a possible strike amid ongoing contract negotiations, the New York State Nurses Association announced.

The authorization allows nurses to walk out if talks stall before current agreements expire at the end of the year, but any strike would require at least 10 days’ notice to hospitals.

The list of hospitals affected include Maimonides Medical Center, Interfaith Medical Center, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, The Brooklyn Hospital Center and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. Union leaders said hospital management has stalled negotiations rather than addressing nurses’ concerns about safe staffing, patient safety and working conditions.

In a statement, the New York State Nurses Association said the vote “shows management that nurses are ready to do whatever it takes to win a fair contract,” emphasizing that a strike remains a last resort.

Union members argue that instead of cutting executive pay, scaling back risky new technologies, or reconsidering profit-driven investments, hospital leaders are proposing changes that would roll back staffing standards nurses say are critical to safe patient care.

"Patients should be concerned about how hospitals are reacting to impending healthcare cuts. Instead of cutting from executive pay, risky new technologies, and money-making investments, they are proposing to compromise safe patient care by rolling back the staffing standards nurses worked hard to achieve," said NewYork-Presbyterian pediatric emergency room nurse Aretha Morgan.

Morgan added that nurses “won’t stand by and watch them try to unravel staffing standards that have made such massive strides in helping hospitals cut back on wait times, reduce nurse burnout, improve patient care, and more.”

Union officials say employers have yet to present meaningful financial proposals and are pushing contract changes that would weaken staffing protections and oversight. Some hospitals have also refused to guarantee healthcare coverage for nurses, and the union accuses certain facilities of retaliating against nurses who spoke publicly during contract talks, including at Mount Sinai, where three nurses were disciplined after raising safety concerns following an active shooter incident.

The union also points to a broader healthcare affordability crisis. Hospital costs in New York State have risen faster than the national average in recent years, even as operating profits at major systems such as NewYork-Presbyterian have grown.

Nurses argue that those gains have not been matched by investments in frontline staff or patient care, and that many nurses continue to work under difficult conditions, facing high rates of workplace injuries and violence.

“Nurses are on the front lines of protecting public health in New York City every single day,” said New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Brendan Griffith. “By voting to authorize a strike, NYSNA nurses are making clear that safe patient care can’t be delayed, negotiated away, or treated as optional. When hospitals drag out negotiations, fail to address workplace safety, or refuse to invest in staffing, it’s working people and their families who pay the price."

NYSNA leaders noted that nurses at these hospitals also voted to authorize a strike three years ago, and roughly 7,000 nurses at two private hospitals walked out in January 2023. They stressed that striking is always a last resort and said they hope hospital management will make progress toward a fair contract before the current agreements expire.

The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members across New York State.

NYSNA has authorized strikes at the following dozen facilities:

• BronxCare Health System
• Brooklyn Hospital Center
• Flushing Hospital Medical Center
• One Brooklyn Health’s Interfaith Medical Center
• One Brooklyn Health’s Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center
• Maimonides Medical Center
• Montefiore Medical Center
• Mount Sinai Hospital
• Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West
• New York-Presbyterian’s Columbia University Medical Center
• Richmond University Medical Center
• Wyckoff Heights Medical Center