The Nurses’ Strike Is a Pivotal Battle for Zohran’s New York
New York hospitals are ignoring striking nurses’ demands for patient and health care worker safety and respect and trying to weaken one of the city’s most important unions. Mayor Mamdani and his movement have a key role to play in helping nurses win.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani can escalate pressure on the hospitals by calling on the coalition that elected him to mobilize as many people as possible to join the picket line. (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)
Labor and patient rights are under attack in New York City.
We write as nurse leaders at three of the biggest hospitals in the city: Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and New York-Presbyterian. For months during contract negotiations between the hospitals and our union, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), management has stonewalled us on our demands for safe staffing, an end to workplace violence, and maintaining our current health care and benefits. Since bargaining started in September, management has refused to negotiate on our core demands. And even while we have been on strike, they have broken promises they made to us to resume negotiations, showing open contempt for the collective bargaining process.
On January 12, 15,000 of us had enough and launched the largest nurses strike in our city’s history. It is also the biggest strike in New York City in over two decades. Our strike is now in its third week.
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