NYC Nurses End Strike at Two Hospital Systems, NewYork‑Presbyterian Walkout Continues

The New York State Nurses Association says nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai have ratified three‑year contracts ending their participation in a month‑long strike, while nurses at NewYork‑Presbyterian rejected a similar proposal and will remain on the picket lines. Roughly 10,500 of the 15,000 nurses who walked out Jan. 12 will return to work in the coming days, but more than 4,200 NewYork‑Presbyterian nurses are still on strike after their own bargaining committee and rank‑and‑file voted down a mediator‑crafted deal that union leadership had urged them to accept. The approved contracts include pay raises totaling more than 12% over three years, preserve health benefits without higher out‑of‑pocket costs, and add new protections against workplace violence, with specific language covering transgender and immigrant nurses and patients. They also commit the hospitals to hiring more staff, adding weapons detection and visitor screening, issuing panic alarms for employees, and — for the first time in these systems — establishing safeguards around how artificial intelligence is used in hospital operations. The strike, described by the union as the largest and longest nurses’ walkout in New York City history, has highlighted chronic staffing and safety concerns at major private hospitals and increases pressure on NewYork‑Presbyterian to reach a deal that can satisfy its nurses after they rejected terms the hospital calls fair and comparable.