Overview
- Nearly 15,000 nurses at Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian have been on strike since Jan. 12, and bargaining collapsed again heading into the holiday weekend despite mediation.
- Mount Sinai and the city health department refuted reports of strike-related patient deaths, and the union clarified it is not claiming any deaths directly resulted from the walkout and lacks direct knowledge inside the hospitals.
- Hospital systems say emergency departments remain open and operations are running with thousands of replacement nurses, reporting transplants and cardiac surgeries continuing.
- The union is seeking enforceable staffing ratios, wage increases and preservation of health benefits, while hospitals label the proposals unreasonable and cite already high average nurse compensation and projected costs.
- Researchers note past nurse strikes in New York were associated with higher in-hospital mortality and readmissions, a backdrop as elected officials and other unions publicly back the nurses.