New York City Nurses strike continues
New York City
January 17 – Coming off a Friday of well-below freezing temperatures as an arctic blast hit the eastern seaboard, the New York City nurses’ strike, involving 15,000 nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), entered its sixth day.
At Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the three being struck, nurses held the picket line strong in spite of snow flurries. Thousands of cars drove by honking support for the majority women of color workers who make some of New York’s biggest hospitals run.
As strike moves into second week, nurses outside Mount Sinai Hospital keep up their spirits. Jan. 19, 2026. WW photo: Ellen Catalinotto
The fabulously wealthy owners of Mount Sinai, Montefiore and New York-Presbyterian hospitals are claiming they can’t afford to maintain the health care gains or safe staffing levels NYSNA won in its three-day strike in 2023.
New York-Presbyterian’s CEO earns $26.4 million a year, while Mount Sinai spent $100 million on an AI center. Those millions of dollars were created by the labor of the nurses now on strike. With influenza and COVID-19 rates at high levels, these hospital owners are prioritizing profit over patient safety, nurses’ safety and workers’ rights. The hospitals are paying traveling nurses hired as strikebreakers as much as $9,000 a week and will spend $100 million in its attempt to defeat the union.
As the weather threatens to get even colder, support on the picket line for this consequential strike, led by women of color, will be essential for a critical workers’ victory. This is particularly important as President Donald Trump does everything he can, through violent, racist raids and deportations, to destroy classwide solidarity.
To follow the developments of the strike, readers can go to the union site, nysna.org.
