Next week, nearly 16,000 nurses at five private hospitals across the city could walk off the job in what would be the largest health care labor strike in New York since the 47-day hospital strike in 1984.
Many of the nurses, members of the New York State Nurses Association union, are immigrants. They say they’re fighting against hospitals’ attempts to cut employee healthcare, as well as management’s refusal to ensure safe staffing and their refusal to agree to workplace violence protections.
Should the nurses strike, it would affect staffing at Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian, and Montefiore hospitals in Manhattan and the Bronx. Some of the hospitals, including Mount Sinai, have already started preparing for a nurses’ strike by bringing in outside, non-union staff, Gothamist earlier reported.
At the heart of the nurses’ fight is their demand for safer working conditions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare workers bear the brunt of workplace violence, accounting for 73 percent of all nonfatal violent workplace injuries recorded in 2018, the last year for which granular data is available.
A 2023 report by the National Nurses United (NNU), which surveyed nearly 1,000 nurses, found that eight in 10 nurses experienced some kind of workplace violence within the past year.
Workplace violence against nurses in particular appears to be increasing. The NNU report found that 45.5 percent of nurses surveyed reported an increase in workplace violence on their unit in the previous year. A 2024 report by the healthcare company Press Ganey found 16,975 assaults recorded against nurses in 2023, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year.
Irina Viruet, a 53-year-old immigrant from Bulgaria, has worked as a registered nurse at Mount Sinai’s Morningside campus for three years. On Aug. 30, while working the night shift at the hospital’s psychiatric ward, Viruet was attacked by a female patient as she walked her room.
“There was a shift, and I knew something was coming,” Viruet said. “She turned around and threw herself at me, digging her nails in my face and pushing me to the ground. My first instinct was to protect my eyes and face, but I felt like literally my eye was under her nail.”
Following the attack, Viruet says she continued her shift despite injuries to her face, back, and leg.
“You feel so violated. I spent the rest of the shift crying, not so much from the pain but from feeling so violated and feeling management doesn’t care.”
After her shift, Viruet said she reported her injuries to hospital management, but nothing was done.
“I went to the ER, and they were very dismissive of my claims,” she said. “They told me to go home and rest for a few days.”
The lack of action from hospital management is why Viruet says many violent incidents go unreported.
“A lot of my coworkers get hurt, and they don’t bother reporting because nothing gets done,” she said. “I felt that it’s almost normalized to feel you’re in danger, to wonder if you’re going to get hurt today and be out of work. That should be an issue. I shouldn’t have to come into work and feel afraid. I should be happy to do the job that I have a passion for.”
Viruet and the union are demanding that the hospital beef up security.
“Safety is a very important issue to me,” said Viruet. “What we are asking for is to have security on our floor for the safety of the staff and the patients.”
Gueldye Beaubrun, a Mount Sinai emergency department nurse for more than 20 years, said the hospital retaliated or dismissed previous complaints of unsafe working conditions. “Instead of taking our concerns seriously, the hospital responds with silencing,” she said. “But we will never be silent when it comes to the safety of our patients and colleagues. We will continue to push for the necessary protections because the safety of this community is far too important. Mount Sinai’s scare tactics cannot stop us from advocating for our community.”
According to NYSNA, since October, the union has filed six unfair labor practice charges against Mount Sinai with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the hospital retaliated against nurses.
The nurses’ union contract with Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian expired on Dec. 31, with the parties unable to reach an agreement with management by the end-of-year deadline. The nurses voted to authorize a strike on Dec. 26, and have given the hospitals a strike deadline of Jan.12 to settle their dispute. The union has already rescinded strike orders for some hospitals as they came closer to reaching agreements.
As the nurses continued to bargain with hospital management, Mount Sinai began hiring temporary replacement nurses and forced union nurses to train their replacements on the threat of termination, the union said.
Mount Sinai does not deny that it hired replacement workers, framing it as a precautionary measure to avoid disruption to patient care.
“While we hope to reach a new deal, our top priority will always be providing the best care for our patients and supporting all of our employees,” said Lucia L. Lee, vice president of media and public affairs at Mount Sinai Health System. “We are taking the necessary steps to prepare now in case of a strike, especially as NYSNA threatens to take more than 20,000 nurses away from the patients’ bedside at a time that the state is experiencing a record number of flu hospitalizations.”
She added: “While we know a strike can be disruptive, we have experienced a strike before and have taken every step to best support our patients and employees in the event nurses walk away for the second time in three years.”
NewYork-Presbyterian blamed NYSNA for the negotiation impasse and told Documented that it had taken steps to minimize disruptions for its patients.
“NYSNA’s threatened strike is intended to disrupt patient care across the city,” Angela Karafazli, a spokesperson for NewYork-Presbyterian, said in a statement to Documented. “We have taken the necessary steps to ensure that our patients will continue to receive safe, exceptional care. We will always meet our fundamental obligation to the communities we serve.”
Montefiore Hospital did not respond to Documented’s request for comment.
Also Read: Caribbean Immigrant Nurses: The Backbone of New York’s Healthcare System
NYSNA stresses that it is not looking to strike but will be forced to walk off the job if management fails to address its demands.
“We have been bargaining for months, but hospitals have not done nearly enough to settle fair contracts that protect patient care,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in a statement shared with Documented. “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 following hospitals could be affected by the potential strike: Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai West, and Mount Sinai Morningside in Manhattan; NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan; and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
If the nurses do strike, New York City’s Office of Emergency Management said it would coordinate with the affected hospitals to transfer patients to other facilities if there are significant service disruptions.
The Mayor’s office did not respond to Documented’s multiple requests for comment.
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