Largest Nurses Strike in NYC History: CWA Stands with NYSNA!

On January 12, after months of tough bargaining, 15,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) made the difficult decision to go out on strike at three of the biggest, wealthiest hospital systems in New York City. 

The workers are on strike at several Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork Presbyterian facilities in the Bronx and Manhattan over patient safety, safe staffing, workplace violence, and healthcare for the workers. 

CWA members from Locals 1101, 1104, 1109, 1180, and others have been out in force to walk the picket lines alongside NYSNA members over the past week, and we will continue to support our NYSNA family until they win every single contract they—and our communities who rely on their care—deserve!

On January 30th Billy Gallagher, CWA District 1 Assistant to the Vice President, spoke at a joint labor press conference at Columbia Presbyterian alongside leaders from the NYC Central Labor Council, 1199SEIU, Transit Workers Union, and many other of the city’s unions, to call on the NewYork Presbyterian and the other hospital systems to settle these contracts NOW.

“I know first hand that this isn’t easy for you. I KNOW that you all wouldn’t be out here unless you had to be. And SHAME on the hospitals - some of the wealthiest hospitals in the Country - for not doing every single thing they can to reach a fair agreement. But YOU are the ones who are brave enough and strong enough to take a stand not just for yourselves, but for this community and this city.”

With our own 15,000+ membership working in healthcare, we know firsthand the immense pressure frontline healthcare workers face as while caring for patients under increasingly difficult and dangerous conditions—and no one knows better than our members in Buffalo, NY, who struck for forty days in 2021, just how difficult it is to go on strike to fight for patient care. 

Nurses and other healthcare workers throughout the Northeast are working through one of the worst flu surges in recent history while facing real threats of workplace violence—including recent horrific incidents at Mount Sinai and NewYork-Presbyterian. As NYSNA members put their own safety on the line to care for their patients, hospital management has responded by threatening job loss, surveilling union members, attempting to silence those speaking out, and stalling negotiations–all while pouring millions into temporary travel nurses instead of investing in their permanent staff.

New York City’s largest private hospital systems are among the wealthiest private healthcare systems in New York, yet they claim they cannot afford a fair contract. These hospitals cannot claim poverty while threatening workers and stockpiling resources to fight their own workforce.