Mayor Mamdani urges nurses to ‘stay at the table’ as thousands walk out in biggest nurse strike in NYC history

Thousands of nurses across three major hospital systems in New York City are walking off the job Monday after weekend negotiations failed to produce agreements, triggering what union leaders say is the largest nurses’ strike in the city’s history. The walkout is affecting The Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its satellite campuses, New York-Presbyterian, and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, with picket lines forming early in the day.

Nearly 15,000 nurses participated in the strike after no deal was reached, according to Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association. The union said a vast majority of its members had voted to authorize the strike last month. The work stoppage comes amid a severe flu season, raising concerns about patient transfers, canceled procedures, ambulance diversions, and added strain on hospitals not involved in the dispute, as patients seek care elsewhere.


Hospitals involved in the strike said they have hired temporary nurses to cover staffing gaps and insisted patient care would continue. During negotiations, hospital systems said they would “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions.” Montefiore also issued a message assuring patients that scheduled appointments would be kept.

What nurses are demanding, and why talks collapsed

Although the strike is happening across multiple hospital systems at the same time, each facility is negotiating separately with the union. In recent days, several other hospitals in New York City and surrounding suburbs reached agreements that avoided walkouts.

The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but staffing levels and workplace safety remain the core issues. The union says nurses are being assigned unmanageable workloads and that hospitals have failed to meet earlier staffing commitments. Nurses are also calling for stronger security measures following recent violent incidents, including one last week in which a man armed with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room before being killed by police. The union has also raised concerns about hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.

The nonprofit hospital systems involved in the talks say they have been working to improve staffing but argue that the union’s overall demands would be too costly.

City leaders warn of risks as flu season strains hospitals

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani both expressed concern as the strike deadline approached.

In an X post, Mamdani said: “The safety and wellbeing of this city is my top priority and ensuring New Yorkers have the care they need is critical, especially during flu season. The city's Emergency Management team, FDNY, health department, public hospital system, and my senior leadership team are in constant communication and closely monitoring the situation. We are prepared for any and all scenarios, including a strike. No New Yorker should have to fear losing access to health care, and no nurse should be asked to accept less pay, fewer benefits or less dignity for doing lifesaving work. Our nurses kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable. I'm relieved that most hospitals have reached an agreement and urge the remaining parties to stay at the table and reach a deal that both honors our nurses and keeps our hospitals open.”

The last major nurses’ strike in New York City occurred in 2023, when the same union staged a three-day walkout at Mount Sinai and Montefiore. That strike resulted in a contract that included pay raises totaling 19% over three years and promised staffing improvements. During that walkout, hospitals postponed non-emergency surgeries, diverted ambulances, transferred some patients, and relied on temporary nurses and administrators with clinical backgrounds. Some patients reported longer wait times and thinner staffing.

Now, the union says hospitals are retreating from those earlier guarantees and falling short on other commitments, while hospital systems dispute that claim. In contrast, several smaller hospitals, including multiple Northwell Health facilities on Long Island, have reached deals in recent days that the union said made sufficient progress to avert strikes.