15,000 NYC Nurses Strike at Three Major Hospitals

Thousands of nurses at three major hospital systems in New York City walked off the job Monday, launching what their union described as the largest nursing strike in the city's history. The action, involving about 15,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association, targeted NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, and Montefiore Medical Center after weekend negotiations failed to resolve contract disputes. Picket lines formed outside facilities including NewYork-Presbyterian in Upper Manhattan, Mount Sinai's main hospital and satellite campuses, and Montefiore in the Bronx.

The strike centers on demands for improved staffing levels, enhanced workplace safety measures, and restrictions on hospitals' use of artificial intelligence in operations. Union representatives said nurses face unmanageable workloads that compromise patient care, pointing to recent violent incidents such as a man with a sharp object who barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room last week and was later killed by police, as well as a gunman who entered Mount Sinai in November and was also fatally shot by officers. "Unfortunately, greedy hospital executives have decided to put profits above safe patient...