Outside Mount Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan, hundreds of nurses entering their second week of a historic strike were joined on the picket line on Tuesday by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
Nearly 15,000 nurses at three of the largest private hospital systems across the city walked off the job on Jan. 12 after hospital management and the nurses’ union, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), could not agree on the terms of a new contract. Among the nurses’ concerns is their fear of increased workplace violence.
The nurses are demanding that the hospital systems — Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian, and Montefiore — provide safe staffing ratios, improve workplace violence prevention measures, and improve health care benefits.
“This is about safe working conditions, this is about a safe contract,” Mamdani said to the roaring cheers of nurses who braved the frigid weather, with temperatures dipping as low as 9 degrees Fahrenheit.
“This is about dignity,” Mamdani said. “Today is day nine of those demands, and I want you to know wherever I go in New York City, I hear about the plight of our nurses.”
NYSNA claims that management at Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian, among the wealthiest hospitals in the city by patient revenue, are threatening to drastically cut nurses’ health benefits. They also allege that Mount Sinai unlawfully fired three nurses in retaliation for their organizing on the Sunday before the strike.
The union said it has filed six unfair labor practice charges since October against Mount Sinai with the National Labor Relations Board, with some of the charges alleging that the hospital retaliated against nurses.
Negotiations between NYSNA and the hospitals broke down on Friday when the two parties were unable to reach an agreement, with no further negotiations scheduled as of Tuesday, according to the union.
Pete Montayre, 36, has been a nurse at Mount Sinai West for two years. Before working in New York, he was a nurse in California, where he said conditions were better and nurses had a manageable patient load. Montayre said the patient loads in New York are unmanageable.
“I tell you it’s not safe,” he told Documented. “For those who are inexperienced, being a New York City nurse is not a safe start.”
Showing solidarity with the striking nurses, the Mayor went on to urge both sides to restart negotiations to end the largest nurses strike in city history.
“What this is about is recognizing the worth of each and every nurse in this city,” he said. “So I am here to say the same thing I said on the first day of this strike, which is we are encouraging everyone to return to that bargaining table.”
Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont, accused the hospital’s management of putting profits above the health care safety demands of nurses. According to the most recent 990 tax filings, the CEOs of Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian had a combined salary of more than $42.7 million, not including additional compensation. In 2024 alone, NewYork-Presbyterian CEO Steve Corwin received $26.3 million in total compensation.
“Don’t tell me you can’t provide a good nurse-staff ratio when you’re paying your CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian $26 million a year, the CEO of Montefiore $16 million a year, the Mount Sinai CEO $5 million a year,” Sanders said. “Don’t tell me you can treat nurses with dignity.”
Joe Solmonese, Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications for Montefiore, blamed the nurses for the breakdown in negotiations.
“Until they can back away from their reckless and dangerous $3.6 billion demands, progress overall will not be possible,” he told Documented in a statement. “In the meantime, we continue to provide the world-class care our communities deserve.”
NewYork-Presbyterian did not provide a comment, instead sharing a fact sheet that says the hospital has proposed maintaining nurses’ current employer-funded benefits and does not plan to eliminate health benefits. The fact sheet states that NewYork-Presbyterian is committed to safe staffing and workplace safety.
Mount Sinai did not respond to Documented’s request for comment.
Camella Talbert Smith, 42, has been a nurse in the mental health unit at Mount Sinai for 18 years. Smith said she appreciated having support from politicians, including the city’s mayor.
“We appreciate the support, and you can see how this is very important to them,” she said, referring to Mamdani and Sanders. “It doesn’t only affect the patients, it affects the elected officials also. It’s very important to have their support here because they understand that health care, safe staffing, and of course a contract are very important to us.”
