NYC nurses strike set to end at 2 of 3 hospital systems after union reaches tentative agreement
There's a tentative deal to end the longest and largest nurses strike in New York City history after four weeks.
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) says it has reached a tentative contract agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West and Montefiore Einstein hospitals. NewYork-Presbyterian said it too had accepted a proposal, but sources told CBS News New York that the union has not yet reached an agreement with the hospital.
"The sticking point is what we started this thing in the first place for, which is safe staffing for our patients," NewYork-Presbyterian nurse Patrick Klein said. "And also we don't have protections for our nurses."
A NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson told CBS News New York it accepted a proposal that "includes the same wage increases for all three hospitals, as well as preserves the pension, maintains our nurses' health benefits and includes increased staffing levels."
The union still has to hold a vote to ratify the deal with Mount Sinai and Montefiore. That vote is set to take place this week, and if approved, nurses will return to work at those hospitals on Saturday.
NYSNA says the tentative agreement with Mount Sinai and Montefiore includes the number of nurses, protects health benefits, safeguards against artificial intelligence, and increases nurse's salaries by more than 12% over the life of the three year contract.
The union says there's also protections from workplace violence in place.
"We always wanted the metal detectors. As you know, you have to have metal detectors," NYSNA president Nancy Hagans said. "And we need to have some panic buttons. We need to have a team that is activated when something like that happens."
The CEO of Mount Sinai wrote in a letter to the community Monday that "this process has been difficult for all of us" and that "we will heal the organization together."
No word yet from Montefiore.
NYSNA's leadership touted the tentative agreements.
"For four weeks, nearly 15,000 NYSNA members held the line in the cold and in the snow for safe patient care. Now, nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai systems are heading back to the bedside with our heads held high after winning fair tentative contracts that maintain enforceable safe staffing ratios, improve protections from workplace violence, and maintain health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs for frontline nurses," Hagans said.
"I'm so proud of the resilience and strength of NYSNA nurses. They have shown that when we fight, we win. Nurses sacrificed their own pay and healthcare while on strike to defend patient care for all of New York. We helped galvanize a movement for worker and healthcare justice that reached beyond New York City," NYSNA executive director Pat Kane said.
Strike started on Jan. 12
Those 15,000 nurses walked off the job on Jan. 12 after contract negotiations with the privately run hospitals failed. NYSNA leadership said it was fighting for pay raises, health care coverage, safe staffing levels and protections from workplace violence.
On Jan. 25, NYSNA announced it had reached an agreement to maintain health care benefits with Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian, but the strike stretched into a third week as negotiations on other matters continued.
Nurses walked the picket lines outside hospitals for more than 25 days, braving frigid temperatures at times.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders both joined the nurses on Day 9 of the strike to voice their support and encourage a resolution. Gov. Kathy Hochul also urged the union and the hospitals to return to the negotiating table.
Hospitals brought in temporary travel nurses to continue patient care, and some nurses crossed the picket line early on to report to work.
The last nurses strike in the city was back in 2023, when roughly 7,000 nurses walked off the job. That strike came to an end after three days.
