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All three striking hospital systems have agreed to meet with the New York State Nurses Association and federal and state mediators, in the first sign of progress since 15,000 nurses walked off the job earlier this week, THE CITY has learned.
Representatives from Montefiore and Mount Sinai will return to the bargaining table on Friday, their first session with the nurses’ union since Sunday, the eve of the strike, according to union and hospital sources. Representatives from NewYork-Presbyterian agreed to return to the bargaining table Thursday evening and again on Friday.
A spokesperson for NewYork-Presbyterian confirmed the hospital system was set to resume bargaining with the union on Thursday night. Representatives from Mount Sinai and Montefiore did not immediately respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.
Despite this progress, the two sides are far apart on issues the union says are non-negotiable for its membership.
Mamdani backs hospital nurses as 15,000 strike over pay, safety
A major sticking point is health care: Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian allegedly want to roll back or cease their payments to the union’s health fund — a move that would reverberate far beyond the striking nurses. (Montefiore provides health benefits through a separate plan.)
Any reduction in the hospitals’ contributions to NYSNA’s health benefits fund would increase costs for the 44,000 people enrolled in the union’s health care plan, including members in the private sector across the state and their dependents. If the hospitals get their way, NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in a phone interview, premiums and prescription drug costs under their plan could dramatically increase.
“For them to come in and destroy the medical benefits of our nurses is a shame, and it’s unacceptable,” she said. The union also wants administrators to agree to install metal detectors and panic buttons and to agree to preserve nurse-to-patient ratios it secured in 2023.
Hospital representatives have said that they cannot afford to meet the union’s demands amid looming federal cuts and rising health costs.
Montefiore, Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian have jointly spent about $100 million to pay temporary nurses for the duration of the strike, the Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group, has said.
“Our goal continues to be an agreement that balances the amazing contributions of our nurses with the long-term financial realities,” Mount Sinai CEO Dr. Brendan Carr said in a strike update to staff on Thursday. “To support ongoing safe operations, we’ve now extended our nonrefundable contract [for temporary nurses] to ensure we have a workforce willing to provide care to our patients. This investment consumes limited resources that I would have preferred to direct to our nurses.”
The three hospital systems are among the city’s most costly for patients. As patient costs soared by as much as 213% in the last decade and a half, executive compensation also soared, according to an analysis by the union.
NewYork-Presbyterian is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly colluding with insurance companies to keep prices high for New York City patients.
The nurses’ strike, now in its fifth full day, is the largest work stoppage of its kind in city history. It has already surpassed the length of a smaller, three-day strike in 2023 by nurses at many of the same facilities.
This strike has also been more acrimonious. Hospital administrators have disciplined and in some cases fired outspoken nurses leading up to the strike. NYSNA has filed more than a dozen charges to the U.S. labor board alleging unlawful retaliation and threats against workers related to the contract talks and strike. Earlier this week, Montefiore officials accused nurses of striking to protect staffers “compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job.”
Claudia Irizarry Aponte is a senior reporter covering labor and work for THE CITY.
