Over 10,000 New York City nurses approve contract, but thousands remain on strike

After four weeks on strike, thousands of nurses at New York City health systems have reached a deal on a new contract.

The New York State Nurses Association announced Monday that nurses at Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside and West have a tentative agreement on a new deal. The strike began Jan. 12.

About 10,500 nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai voted this week to ratify the pact. The union said the deal would include increases of 12% over the three-year contract. The association said nurses will return to work on Feb. 14.

The union also said the agreement will increase the number of nurses and protect benefits. The pact also includes a first: contractual protections to prevent nurses from losing their jobs to AI.

Late Tuesday, the association said about 4,200 nurses at some NewYork-Presbyterian facilities are going to vote to ratify a tentative new agreement. Nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian voted to reject the deal, the union said Wednesday.

The nurses’ union celebrated the tentative agreement for its members at Montefiore and Mount Sinai. The association called it the biggest and longest nursing strike in New York City history.

Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said nurses have picketed in the snow and bitter cold for nearly a month to get the deal. Nurses recently marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.

“We believe all striking nurses deserve to see the details of their tentative agreements and get the opportunity to vote on whether to ratify a new contract,” Hagans said in a statement Tuesday night.

“As a democratic, member-led union that responds to its members, we are moving forward with a vote on tentative contracts at all four hospitals with the goal of returning all nurses to work as soon as possible,” she said.

Mount Sinai pledged to improve its relationship with its nurses.

“This process has been difficult for all of us,” Mount Sinai said in a statement Monday. “While it has been amazing to once again see Mount Sinai do extraordinary things in order to serve our patients and community, it will take time to rebuild the momentum that we had in the alignment of our organization. I commit to you that we will heal the organization together in the service of continuing to help people to live longer and better lives.”

On the West Coast, more than 30,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses remain on strike as they look for a new contract. The strike began Jan. 26.On Monday, thousands of other Kaiser Permanente employees at labs and pharmacies in California also went on strike, KTLA-TV reported.

The Kaiser Permanente nursing contract dispute is being watched by other health systems.

Steve Wasson, chief data and intelligence officer for Strata Decision Technology, told Chief Healthcare Executive® in a recent interview that Kaiser’s contracts often establish precedents in other negotiations.

“When some of these large organizations lock in new contracts … It sets the market,” he says. “It kind of locks the market in. And so there's a trickle effect.”

Note: This story was updated to include the NewYork-Presbyterian nurses rejecting the offer.