More than 15,000 nurses from New York City’s three largest hospital networks went on strike yesterday in a showdown between health care workers and hospital executives intent on reversing hard-fought protections secured after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The strike— the largest nurse walkout in the city’s history— comes after Mount Sinai, New York Presbyterian and Montefiore failed to meet nurse demands for safer working conditions, enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios, better benefits, and competitive wages. 

It was a lively scene outside the main Mount Sinai hospital on Madison Avenue between the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem. A crowd of picketers donning red NYSNA (New York State Nurse Association) merch chanted “We need a better contract!”, accompanied by a live band and passing vehicles honking in solidarity. Pizza and coffee were served to sustain the picketers, who had been on their feet since 6 am — a familiar strain for nurses accustomed to long, physically-demanding shifts. 

For the vast majority of striking nurses, Monday’s demonstration was not about gaining new benefits, but about preserving the protections they received following the 2023 strikes. Three years ago, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses fought for safe staffing ratios and improved benefits. The contract that came out of those strikes expired on December 31.  

“All the safe staffing language that we won in the last strike is redlined. They want to take it all back,” said one young nurse who has been at the Mount Sinai on Madison for six years.  

Mount Sinai’s contract with Anthem insurance also expired on December 31. For many nurses, this means they will have to receive their health care elsewhere, or pay higher, out-of-pocket fees. 

“We’re all on Anthem health insurance,” said one nurse, referencing his two co-workers. “We want to be able to be treated at the very hospital we work at.”

For Olethea Campbell, a veteran nurse of 29 years, this issue is deeply personal. “I am a survivor of a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2023,” Campbell said, “and all my doctors are at Mount Sinai: my neurosurgeons, everyone, so for you not to give me health insurance… I can’t start over and start choosing my neurosurgeons and find new doctors to take care of me, because every single one of my doctors are within the Mount Sinai network, so I have to strike for my health insurance.” 

Aside from unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios and the cutting of benefits, Campbell raised safety concerns surrounding the lack of hospital security measures. Recalling an agitated patient of hers who carried a pack of box cutters, Campbell said, “He went through security. So I wonder how exactly did he get through security holding that.” 

Maggie, a nurse who was hired as part of a staffing initiative that came out of the 2023 strikes, echoed Campbell’s concerns: “We’ve had too many instances where the nurses are not being treated safely, and they’re trying to take away our health care, so when we do get injured, there’s nothing for us to lean back on.” 

The contract that is reached with the big three hospital networks will also shape the contracts of 6,000 other NYSNA nurses that work at the city’s 11 public service hospitals.

Rather than negotiate with their nurses, Mount Sinai’s response has been to pay as much as $10,000 dollars a week to travel nurses to care for patients during the strike. “It’s not safe,” said nurse Minna Scott. “Those nurses are not properly trained to the unit, and those nurses don’t know this institution.” 

Mount Sinai nurses say they know all too well that their replacements are underqualified because it was their responsibility to train them. And, as we approach the peak of flu season, they note, this temporary staffing solution presents a major public safety hazard. 

There’s a saying amongst healthcare workers: “When the nurses are outside, something’s going on inside.”

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