Thousands of nurses at Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian ended the longest nurses strike in city history by securing safe staffing and healthcare protections
Forty-One Days in the Cold
On January 12, 2026, more than 14,000 nurses at five major New York City hospital systems walked off the job, launching what became the longest nurses strike in the city’s history. The strike stretched across six weeks of some of the coldest weather New York had seen in years. Nurses picketed outside Montefiore, Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West, and NewYork-Presbyterian, holding signs, serving soup, and welcoming elected officials, labor leaders, and community members to their lines. Senator Bernie Sanders joined the picket lines. Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined the picket lines, telling nurses: “They show up and all they are asking for in return is dignity and respect and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve. They should settle for nothing less.” The strike ended with contracts ratified across all three major private hospital systems, with nurses winning protection of their healthcare benefits, stronger safe staffing standards, workplace violence protections, and three-year contracts.
What They Were Fighting For
The New York State Nurses Association identified three core demands that drove the strike. First: safe staffing ratios. Nurses at the three major private academic medical centers — Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian — had won staffing ratios in the 2023 strike. Hospital management was attempting to roll back those standards in the 2026 negotiations. Second: healthcare benefits. Management at Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian proposed cutting the nurses’ own NYSNA Plan A health coverage. Third: workplace violence protections. Multiple serious incidents of violence against nurses had occurred in the lead-up to the strike, including an active shooter incident at Mount Sinai Hospital. Management refused to agree to stronger protections.
The Money Behind the Resistance
NYSNA documented that the three major private hospital systems involved in the strike had accumulated more than $1.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of September 2025 — twice what they held in 2017, even adjusted for inflation. Executive compensation at those systems had increased 54 percent between 2020 and 2023. The CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian received $26.3 million in total compensation in 2024. Management spent more than $100 million on temporary “traveler nurses” during the strike, paying some replacement workers up to $10,000 per week, while arguing that safe staffing ratios were unaffordable. “During this historic nurse strike, nurses fought to protect and improve care for New Yorkers,” NYSNA said in a statement upon ratification. “They faced some of the wealthiest, largest private employers in the city and fought against unseen levels of union-busting, public denigration, and delay tactics.” The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 nurses statewide. The National Labor Relations Board has documented the unfair labor practice charges filed during the strike against all three hospital systems. The strike is now a touchstone in the city’s labor history — evidence that workers in some of the city’s most powerful institutions can still win when they hold together.
