{"id":512604,"date":"2026-01-13T07:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/512604\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:01:31","slug":"its-us-against-the-executives-striking-nurses-in-new-york-city-speak-from-the-picket-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/512604\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s us against the executives\u201d: Striking nurses in New York City speak from the picket line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nurses at New York Presbyterian Hospital <\/p>\n

Nearly 15,000 nurses in New York City walked off the job Monday morning in the first major strike of the new year. Nurses at New York Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospital systems staffed boisterous picket lines throughout the day, carrying strike placards and homemade signs that provided a glimpse of the conditions they are struggling against. \u201cClosets are for clothes, not for babies,\u201d one sign read. \u201cWho takes health care away from \u2018heroes\u2019?\u201d another asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The walkout, which was pared back by the New York State Nurses Association\u2019s last-minute deals with eight hospitals, is nonetheless the largest nurses\u2019 strike in the history of New York City. It comes three years after the last major nurses\u2019 strike in the city, which involved two of the same hospital systems, Mount Sinai and Montefiore. A key issue then, as now, is unsafe staffing levels that have led to impossible conditions for nurses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only have staffing levels remained dangerous for patients and untenable for workers, but the hospital executives are demanding workers accept cuts to their own health benefits. They have also refused to address safety concerns, which have increased as the social crisis in New York City has deepened and nationwide, as the Trump administration spearheads the dismantling of the public health infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WSWS reporters spoke with striking nurses on the picket line at New York Presbyterian Monday about the conditions that have provoked this struggle and the political issues behind them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Striking nurses at New York Presbyterian Hospital<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re overrun,\u201d one striker told the World Socialist Web Site. \u201cWe\u2019re always at work taking care of others, and then we\u2019re expected to not fight for ourselves. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here, fighting for a fair contract. They\u2019re trying to attack our healthcare. It\u2019s not fair that we put everything that we have to take care of all of New York City, but then our health is what\u2019s being questioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies are concerned about their profits,\u201d the nurse continued. They\u2019re not concerned about their employees, and they\u2019re not concerned about their patients because this wouldn\u2019t have gotten this far. They would have been at negotiations in good faith, and we would have never gotten here. None of these nurses want to be here, but we are.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthcare has been a problem in this city for a long time, so we need to try and tackle it, but government needs to step in to help. The problem is we don\u2019t have what we need. We get the job done, but we get it done because of our patients. At the end of the day they do need to be taken care of, so we make it work. But after a while of making it work, you end up with scraps and scraps of scraps.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only do so much with what little we\u2019re being given, and even with that we\u2019re making it work. So that just goes to show our commitment towards the community, towards our patients. If only we saw that same kind of commitment from these big hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another nurse at New York Presbyterian pointed to the atrocious staffing levels and the impacts on care. \u201cCurrently, we have patients that wait in the recovery room for up to two days because they\u2019re willing to pack them in, but they\u2019re not willing to account for how many beds are in the hospital. And that results in patients waiting, that results in patients suffering, and it results in nurses not being able to help you.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s incredibly inappropriate to make massive cuts to health. Why should nurses not have healthcare, while we are working during COVID conditions, while we\u2019re working during extreme influenza conditions, while the EDs are packed? Your family members should not be sitting in the recovery room next to somebody with influenza when your family member just waited six months to a year to get a solid organ transplant. That is a gift, and you should not have to squander it because the hospital decides that you are not important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the political situation where unlimited funds are made available for war and advancing dictatorship at home while healthcare and other workers are forced to sacrifice, she responded, \u201cI don\u2019t support any money going to war. Nurses are here to protect you. Nurses are here to save you, and nurses will always be here to save you. It\u2019s corporations that are trying to stuff the money out of you and are trying to make you suffer. Nurses stand with you, we want you to stand with us. This is just the beginning. If we can do it, you can do it. Know your worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A neurosurgery nurse explained, \u201cWe\u2019re here, we\u2019re having the strike specifically for fair wages, for a patient-to-nurse ratio, safety for our patients and to hopefully negotiate our contract. We do a lot of advocating for our patients, a lot of advocating for people in the hospital, and we don\u2019t think there\u2019s much advocacy for us. We have to advocate for ourselves, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re doing this strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

A veteran nurse of 24 years added, \u201cIt\u2019s just heartbreaking that we were recognized as \u2018heroes\u2019 back in the pandemic. And now we\u2019re treated just like nobody. And management didn\u2019t even show up at the negotiation table. So, it\u2019s just right for us to preserve our rights.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A nurse in the postpartum unit said, \u201cWe\u2019re fighting for a fair contract, better staffing, especially for our babies and our high-risk moms. We got a lot of patients with high acuity so we\u2019re fighting for better staffing. Also we\u2019re fighting for our health insurance and our pension and just better safety for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Discussing the broader context in which the nurses strike is unfolding, she commented, \u201cI feel like it\u2019s very brave for anyone who goes on strike or protests, let\u2019s say for the ICE raid. It takes a lot to be brave and fight for what you want and what you believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Striking New York City nurses on January 12, 2026<\/p>\n

Another commented, \u201cWe\u2019re asking for job security so AI doesn\u2019t take over nursing because that is definitely not possible. We want a safe work environment. At one of our local hospitals a patient came and tried to attack a nurse in the ED. We are risking our lives every day, trying to save patients. So we want to ensure that we\u2019re cared for as well.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Management is] trying to silence us,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s trying to make sure that no one on the outside knows what\u2019s really happening. As a nurse, we\u2019re suffering inside, but our voices need to be heard now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of horrific things every day, but we have to pretend like every day is fine, but that\u2019s clearly not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another striker said, \u201cWe, the people, have to remember that it is us against executives that want to make us feel like we are voiceless and powerless. If we remember that we actually do have a voice, across all different workforces, across all states and countries, and that when we unite together there\u2019s nothing that we can\u2019t do and there\u2019s nothing that we can\u2019t accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cWe have managers and executives who are making millions and millions of dollars. The hospital in 2024 made over $10 billion in revenue. And we, as we stand here today, are asking for management to pour back into their nurses, pour back into their staff, pour back into their team, so we can continue pouring into our patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a really big thing that\u2019s uniting all of us is the fight for patient rights and patient safety. There\u2019s been a narrative that\u2019s being pushed out that the nurses here are only like fighting for greedy purposes … but that\u2019s the exact opposite of what we\u2019re here to do. I think it\u2019s incredibly hypocritical, especially because the reason why we are outside is because management has pushed us here. We have not left our patients. We are outside here today fighting to get back to you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get information about building or joining a health workers rank-and-file committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nurses at New York Presbyterian Hospital Nearly 15,000 nurses in New York City walked off the job Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":512605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1142,405,403,5226,5225,77401,5228,5227,222296,6807,39749,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-512604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-nurses","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nysna","18":"tag-strike","19":"tag-unions","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115886508491595318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}