Nurses who had been negotiating with their respective employers through the weekend ending Sunday, Jan. 4 over their working conditions and latest contracts have seen little progress at the table, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). A spokesperson for the union said on Monday, Jan. 5, that in just seven days, as many as 21,000 nurses at 15 private hospitals in New York City and Long Island could go on strike in what they say would be the biggest nurse strike in New York history.
As reported, Montefiore nurses held a rally in March 2025 to oppose then-planned cuts. Meanwhile, NYSNA officials allege a key sticking point in the latest bargaining process is that hospitals are threatening to cut nurses’ healthcare benefits. They allege that in the face of the worst flu outbreak in recorded history, management is demanding cuts to healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, adding that nursing is a high-risk, high injury job, and many nurses are getting sick with the flu as they care for patients during this latest ‘flu surge.
Union officials allege the same hospitals that charge patients “an arm and a leg for care” are saying their own prices are too high to pay for nurses’ benefit packages and they allege that the management teams at the impacted hospitals, which include Montefiore, Mount Sinai and New York Presbyterian, don’t seem interested in avoiding a strike…