Five UWS Hospitals to be Hit if Nurses Strike on Jan. 12

What is being billed as the largest nurses strike in NYC history could hit six Manhattan hospitals on Jan. 12, and five of them happen to be on the Upper West Side.

The hospitals that could be hit by a strike include six hospitals in Manhattan owned by the Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian healthcare systems. Not every hospital in those system has nurses who belong to the New York State Nurses Association, but Mount Sinai Morningside, at 1111 Amsterdam Ave., which is a frequent stop for emergency-room patients and crime victims, is among the hospitals on the list.

The only East Side facility facing down a strike threat is a Mount Sinai operation at 1468 Madison Ave. That hospital made headlines in mid-November when an active shooter was threatening to shoot up the hospital. Police shot Elija Brown dead after he fired at cops. The union said that nurses who spoke to the media after the incident were disciplined by the hospital.

The other Manhattan hospitals that could face a strike are all on the West Side and include: NewYork-Presbyterian Allen at 5141 Broadway; NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center at 177 Fort Washington Ave; NewYork-Presbyterian Children’s Hospital of New York, 3959 Broadway; and Mount Sinai West at 1000 Tenth Ave. The nurses union, headed by Nancy Hagans, gave 10-day notices of a strike to start on Jan. 12 to 12 private hospitals in the five boroughs and to three hospitals owned by Northwell Health on Long Island and Montefiore in the Bronx.

If the strike does come to pass as many as 20,000 nurses could walk off the job, making it largest nurses strike in New York City history. The last time NYSNA went on strike was three years ago, and the strike, by about 7,000 nurses, lasted three days.

The nurses voted on Dec. 22 to authorize the strike. The current contracts expired Dec. 31 and the two sides began negotiating in September, but talks appear to have deteriorated in recent weeks. “Management is refusing to guarantee our healthcare benefits and trying to roll back the safe staffing standards we fought for and won,” NYSNA’s Hagans said in a press release.

“We have been bargaining for months, but hospitals have not done nearly enough to settle fair contracts that protect patient care,” said Hagans. “Striking is always a last resort; however, nurses will not stop until we win contracts that deliver patient and nurse safety. The future of care in this city is far too important to compromise on our values as nurses. The union said that nurses who spoke to the media about the need for more safety were disciplined by Mount Sinai. The union said it wants weapon-detection systems installed at hospital entrances, but the hospitals have balked.

The hospitals said they are being hammered by funding cuts in Medicare and Medicaid contained in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which passed last year. But the union claims that the hospital systems are among the richest private hospitals in the country and are sitting on cash reserves of a combined $1.6 billion.

A NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson said its hospital system is taking necessary steps to ensure safe patient care as the strike date looms. “We have proposed benefits, and new strategies that demonstrate our shared commitment to safe staffing,” the spokesperson said. “So far, NYSNA hasn’t moved off from its unrealistic demand of nearly 30 percent wage increases over three years. Collective bargaining requires compromise from both parties in order to reach an agreement.”

A spokesperson for Mount Sinai said: “NYSNA has acknowledged that federal funding cuts will cost New York hospitals $8 billion and 35,000 jobs, but just three years after its last strike the union is showing once again it is willing to use patients as bargaining chips this time while pushing billions of dollars in economic demands that would compromise the financial health of our entire system and threaten the financial stability of hospitals across New York City.”