Article
Where things stand
The New York State Nurses Association’s contract with 12 private hospitals expired Dec. 31. On Jan. 2 the union delivered strike notices giving management until Jan. 12 to reach agreements. The hospitals include Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, Montefiore, NewYork-Presbyterian’s Columbia University Medical Center, Maimonides, BronxCare and One Brooklyn Health facilities. About 1,000 more nurses at three Northwell hospitals on Long Island also issued notices.
The union is focused on staffing standards, guaranteed health benefits for frontline nurses and workplace security, including weapons screening. Mount Sinai has said the union is seeking a large increase in average pay and pointed to federal funding cuts it says could cost New York hospitals billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs. Maimonides said it hopes to avoid a strike but is preparing to hire contract nurses and redeploy staff.
Why it matters beyond New York
The dispute shows how the financial pressures of 2026 are reaching the bargaining table. Hospitals face coming Medicaid reductions and the lapse of enhanced marketplace subsidies just as unions push for stronger staffing protections and benefit guarantees. Workplace violence has also become a core bargaining issue rather than a side item.
A strike of this size is expensive even when patient care holds up. Replacement agencies charge premium rates and usually require minimum contract terms, elective volume often falls and diversions ripple to nearby hospitals that are not party to the dispute.
A playbook for any system with a contract coming due
- Start contingency planning early. Agency agreements, credentialing, orientation and housing for replacement nurses take weeks. Waiting for a formal notice compresses all of it into ten days.
- Model the full cost. Compare the expense of a work stoppage, including lost volume and recovery time, with the cost of the gap between offers.
- Treat safety as a shared goal. Investments in security screening and violence prevention can be offered without conceding staffing ratios, and they matter to every employee group.
- Coordinate regionally. Hospitals not involved in a strike should plan for overflow of emergency patients and transfers.
- Communicate plainly. Patients, physicians and nonunion staff need clear information on scheduling and access well before any deadline.
Boards should ask management for a labor calendar that lists every contract expiration over the next two years, along with the readiness plan and estimated cost for each.
Archive entry for Jan 5, 2026, added Nov. 11, 2026.