Nurses across New York City walked out on the job on Monday after their union and employers failed to agree on a new contract.
Nearly 15,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian started their strike at 6 a.m. The New York State Nurses Association demanded an increase in pay for nurses, safe staffing levels to improve the nurse-to-patient ratio, full health care benefits and pension and protection from workplace violence.
Hospitals argued that the demands were too costly and said they had spent millions preparing for a strike – including hiring replacement nurses. Mount Sinai released a statement that reads, “Unfortunately, NYSNA decided to move forward with its strike while refusing to move on from its extreme economic demands, which we cannot agree to, but we are ready with 1,400 qualified and specialized nurses – and prepared to continue to provide safe patient care for as long as this strike lasts.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul urged both sides to stay at the table and negotiate, but is now preparing for a state of emergency. The state’s Department of Health will also supply staff to affected hospitals.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will attend the strike at 9:45 a.m.
Even if all 15k worked 12-hour shifts for just 3-days a week with no OT (15000*12*3), that’s still 540,000 labor-hours. If the 1.4k scrub nurses compensate by working 16-hour shifts 7-days a week, that’s only 156,800 labor-hours. Under impossible conditions, they still wouldn’t even match 1/3rd the original volume.