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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre. New York City nurses returned to work a couple weeks ago after the union's longest strike ever. On today's episode, we dive into what caused thousands of nurses to walk off the job in the first place and what negotiations were made to get them back into hospitals, but first, here's what's happening in New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is planning to roll out the city's free childcare for two-year-olds in parts of upper Manhattan, the northwest Bronx, southeastern Queens, and central and eastern Brooklyn. Mamdani says the program will begin in September for 2,000 toddlers regardless of their families' income or immigration status.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Washington Heights, Inwood, and Hamilton Heights.

[cheering]

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: We are launching care for two-year-olds in Fordham, Belmont, Bancortland Village, Morris Heights, Norwood, and Kingsbridge.

[cheering]

Janae Pierre: The communities were selected based on economic need, projected demand for childcare, and provider capacity. Neighborhoods also include Brownsville, Richmond Hill, Ozone park and the Rockaways. Congestion pricing is here to stay after a judge's ruling this week, marking a win for the MTA. About a year ago, President Trump declared that congestion pricing was dead. That call proved to be premature. The MTA quickly sued the feds over their move. Now, a US District Court judge says the Federal Transportation Department acted unlawfully in trying to revoke approval for the tolls. The judge also says the feds can't cut funding for New York State in retaliation for the tolls.

The MTA launched congestion pricing last year under the Biden administration. The program charges drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street a base fee of $9. In its first year, it raised over half a billion dollars, which is being used to fund mass transit upgrades. Congestion pricing opponents like Staten Island Republican Representative Nicole Malliotakis say they're reviewing the decision and weighing their options. Some news for skaters and sidewalk surfers. A proposal for a new skate park in Brooklyn is hitting a few bumps with nearby residents. The planned skate garden at Mount Prospect Park would pave over some green space to make room for skaters.

Councilmember Crystal Hudson says the trade-off is worth it to create a new active space for the community.

Councilmember Crystal Hudson: What I'm hoping to see is an amazing new space in a wonderfully located park that will provide many more opportunities for many more people to enjoy.

Janae Pierre: Construction on the $11 million park is expected to begin next year. Still ahead, the longest nurses' strike in New York City history ended a couple weeks ago. What was the fallout about? That's after a quick break.

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Janae Pierre: Welcome back. On January 12th, nearly 15,000 nurses at 3 of New York City's biggest hospital systems walked off the job. For some of them, it was the second time in three years. The strike is over now, but it lasted 41 days. Yes, 41 days, making it the largest and longest nurses' strike in New York City history. It raised some pretty big questions, like why are nurses walking out again? What happens to their patients when they do, and what did this strike actually accomplish? WNYC health reporter Caroline Lewis has been covering this from the picket line to the negotiating table, and she joins us now. Hey, Caroline.

Caroline Lewis: Hey, Janae.

Janae Pierre: Before we jump into this, thanks so much for covering this very long and, I'm sure, exhausting strike. I understand that you were visiting nurses out on the picket lines throughout this strike, often in freezing temperatures, as we continue our way through this very long winter. What was it like out there?

Caroline Lewis: It was a long strike for the nurses. My time on the picket lines doesn't really compare, but like you said, it was often freezing outside. I remember when the strike started on January 12, I had been up the night before waiting to see if nurses were going to walk out. They ultimately did walk out at Mount Sinai New York Presbyterian in Manhattan and at Montefiore in the Bronx.

Janae Pierre: You knew that this was going to happen.

Caroline Lewis: Yes. They have to give notice. They first have to vote to authorize a strike, then they give 10 day notice. During that time, they had been threatening to strike at a lot of hospitals, and ultimately, most of them reached deals to avoid a strike. Then, finally, there were these three big hospital systems where they were still threatening to walk out. That night before, I was up waiting to see whether it was really going to happen. Then I was out there at Mount Sinai Hospital, where nurses were lining up before dawn.

Nurses: [chanting] The nurses, united, will never be defeated. The nurses united will never be defeated.

Caroline Lewis: You could see it's a tough time when nurses strike, but it was also a special moment for them. They were lining up and waiting for their colleagues who were on the night shift, cheering for them and hugging them when they came out, just hyping each other up. It's this moment of solidarity. Of course, people were frustrated with their employers, but I think you do often see this mix of emotions on the picket line.

Speaker 1: I work at Milstein Hospital building.

Caroline Lewis: How long have you worked here?

Speaker 1: For about two years.

Caroline Lewis: Later that morning, I met Celine Lodge, a nurse at New York Presbyterian. How do you feel about being out on strike today?

Celine Lodge: I feel amazing. It's really sad that it has to come to this. However, I'm really excited to stand up for our rights and stand up for fair wages as well as safe staffing. It's really scary out there.

Janae Pierre: Energy's up for Celine there. She seemed very happy to be out on the picket lines, but that was at the beginning of the nurses' strike. Did that energy hold up throughout the strike?

Caroline Lewis: Yes, I think it was tough. Nurses were not getting paid. Their health insurance was cut off, but when I visited nurses on day nine, which was especially cold, they already had this chant going. One day longer, one day stronger.

Nurses: [chanting] One day longer, one day stronger.

Caroline Lewis: This is one nurse I spoke to that day, Eleanor McIntyre, who was a cardiac ICU nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside. Have you been out here every day, every other day? How have you been holding it down during the strike?

Eleanor McIntyre: Pretty much every day. I got to take care of myself. I don't have health insurance.

Caroline Lewis: What's that been like? It's been freezing out here.

Eleanor McIntyre: It's been cold, but we got to fight for it.

Janae Pierre: This was on day nine, Caroline. Did nurses know that it would be so long?

Caroline Lewis: Honestly, some of the hospital leaders, even right when the strike was starting, were signaling that they were prepared for a long strike. They had spent a lot of money hiring travel nurses to fill in during the strike. It seemed like they were really prepared for this. You see, there on day nine, that was actually the day Mamdani came out with Bernie Sanders to lend their support.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good morning, New York City.

[cheering]

Janae Pierre: Hype them up.

Caroline Lewis: Hype them up a little bit. Obviously, spirits might have been high because of that, but I did go out on different days. One day, I was out later on in the strike at Montefiore up in the Bronx, and there was actually a nurse DJing the strike.

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Caroline Lewis: Honestly, that was one of my favorite moments because I realized he was playing a custom song. I was listening to this dancehall song, and I'm like, "Wait, they're shouting out Montefiore?" It was a custom song one of his colleagues had made for the strike.

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Caroline Lewis: Like I said, it was tough, but nurses were sending the message that they were willing to stick it out.

Janae Pierre: As I mentioned, at the top of all of this, this strike lasted 41 days. That's longer than Ramadan. For Catholics, that's longer than the Lenten season. Why did this strike drag on so long? What was driving the conflict between nurses and hospitals?

Caroline Lewis: Yes, it was a long journey, and I think there were different factors driving the strike and making it drag on as long as it did. Each side had a very different narrative about what was going on. Nurses said they were trying to preserve and build on the gains they had gotten in the past. Staffing is always one of the top concerns for nurses, because if they're understaffed on a shift, then they're scared that they're not going to be giving their patients the right care. They're going to be burnt out. They also said they were trying to address this wide range of other issues that people working in hospitals in 2026 have to deal with.

The threat of being assaulted by patients or visitors, new uses of artificial intelligence, which is becoming really prevalent in hospitals, the threat of ice coming into hospitals. Of course, nurses were also asking for significant raises, but I think that was downplayed a little bit by their union.

Janae Pierre: Why so? How is that downplayed, the need for more money?

Caroline Lewis: They said that they were fighting for fair wages, but it was like, when you asked what nurses are fighting for, it was not the top-line thing that they were saying most of the time. To be fair, when I talked to nurses, I think they were saying, "We want to be paid fairly," but sometimes they would say there's something more important to them, like making sure there was safe staffing. They still, in the beginning, did have big salary asks. tThen if you asked hospitals, it was all about the money. They said, "These nurses are already making more than $150,000 a year on average." Of course, not every nurse is making that.

"Now they're asking for these big raises and other benefits and staffing gains that will add to our costs." They were saying their asks were going to cost them billions of dollars a year at a time when they were facing these federal healthcare cuts that are coming under President Trump. They were just saying the nurses are being unreasonable. I think it was clear that hospitals were really much less willing to give concessions this time around than when nurses were on strike at Mount Sinai and Montefiore three years ago.

Janae Pierre: Let's talk about that time. It seems like it was so Long ago, but very recent. It's so wild to me that nurses have been back on the picket line three years ago. What's the difference this time around?

Caroline Lewis: I think that last time, nurses established that they were a force to be reckoned with. I think the fact that they went on strike and were successful three years ago probably fueled their ability to do this this time around and fight for what they wanted.

Janae Pierre: That was on the heels of the COVID pandemic, right?

Caroline Lewis: Yes, exactly. It was a very different time. COVID was still fresh on everyone's minds. Nurses had been called essential workers. Everyone had come out at 7:00 PM every night and clapped for them, but they felt that they didn't really have the pay and working conditions to match the rhetoric. Nurses really had this clear message: you have to invest in bringing back full-time unionized nurses. We have to be able to enforce these staffing ratios. We need better pay. After just three days of being on strike, they really did get these big wins on pay and staffing.

Janae Pierre: Wow, so that one was way shorter than this one that just happened.

Caroline Lewis: Yes, it was way shorter. I think it was clearer that it was like, okay, nurses struck, and then they won. Hospitals were also in a very different place. For one thing, they were far less prepared than they were this time around to endure a long strike. I think that one made them want to prepare more in case there was another strike. Hospitals were also getting COVID relief checks at the time. They were not facing down these big federal cuts. These are also massive hospital systems that are much more financially resilient than, say, a small independent hospital. I think, as an example of that, you can even look at how they prepared for the nurses' strike.

The Greater New York Hospital Association said they had spent $100 million on replacement staff, and that was at the beginning of the strike. They renewed these contracts throughout the strike to keep their operations going. It's just clear that they have a different level of resources than some of these smaller, more vulnerable hospitals. Certainly, the nurses' refrain throughout the strike was, some of these CEOs are making so much money. The CEO at New York Presbyterian, $26 million a year. They were saying, "It's hard to take them seriously when they call our salary demands unreasonable."

Janae Pierre: My jaw's on the floor right now.

Caroline Lewis: That one's extreme, but that's real.

Janae Pierre: You talk about temporary replacement nurses. I always wondered the role of travel nurses. When you say temporary replacement nurses, that's who you're referring to?

Caroline Lewis: Yes. It's a really interesting thing that came up. You can be a travel nurse, and it doesn't have to be a strike. You can be someone who goes and fills in when a hospital's understaffed, but when you're working a strike, you're getting these huge salaries. You could see online, during this strike, there were staffing firms doing call-outs for nurses and saying, "You can make upwards of $8,000, $9,000 a week to work the strike." There was a big debate going on of some nurses were calling them scabs for doing this. They were saying, "Actually, if we weren't here, you wouldn't be able to go on strike because it would be too dangerous."

They were saying, "No, you're letting hospitals act like nothing is happening and everything's fine." It was definitely controversial to be working these strikes.

Janae Pierre: With that in mind, I'd love to talk about patient care here because I want to know the experience for New Yorkers who are in hospitals who are in need, what happens to them during a strike.

Caroline Lewis: One thing that's interesting about a nurses' strike is the nurses who are walking out will acknowledge that there is an inherent risk involved. They say they're playing the long game; they want to help patients in the long term, but it's true there was a large study of New York nurses' strikes over the years that showed that they increased the risk of patient mortality even if hospitals brought in replacement staff. This is Molly McCann, a nurse I spoke to on the first day of the strike outside New York Presbyterian, acknowledging this.

Molly McCann: It's really sad. I walked out with the nurses this morning at 7:00 AM, and it was just really sad to leave the patients behind, knowing that the care that they're going to be getting while we're out here is questionable.

Janae Pierre: Definitely valid.

Caroline Lewis: Hospital leaders throughout the strike were adamant that they were able to keep operating safely during this strike. It's true that they did seem to be able to minimize the disruptions in care. There were not big ambulance diversions and things like that. They had, like I said, spent all this money preparing and wanting to not be caught off guard.

Janae Pierre: I'm just curious from the patient's perspective, were things just running as normal?

Caroline Lewis: For some people, it was, and they were able to get the care they needed. Other people had appointments canceled, or they had surgeries postponed. I spoke to one woman who had had a baby, and she wasn't able to get her postpartum appointment at New York Presbyterian. She's saying, "I hope I'm okay. I hope everything's fine." I think the most extreme case I heard, I spoke to this patient at Mount Sinai, Jamie Senna, who said she had a major gastrointestinal surgery canceled.

Jamie Senna: I have so much anxiety about this.

Caroline Lewis: She had been through this long saga with her health and was hoping this would provide some relief for chronic abdominal pain she'd been experiencing. She had taken a long medical leave from work for this surgery. She had a friend fly out to care for her, and then it wasn't happening because of the strike.

Jamie Senna: I'm at this point now, where after this long journey that I've been on for over a year trying to get help here, I'm like, "Oh, I need to start talking to other GIs outside of Mount Sinai network," because if this goes on for a long time, I'm going to be screwed, because I'm in pretty severe pain.

Janae Pierre: Wow.

Caroline Lewis: I don't know how common a situation like that was, but I think from her perspective, it was like, "Oh, hospitals are saying that everything is chugging along and everything is going along as normal." From her perspective, it was like, "This is not."

Janae Pierre: Now we know the strike is over, and hospitals and nurses, they eventually came to an agreement. How did the strike come to an end? What happened?

Caroline Lewis: It was a bit of a bumpy road, and there was some drama. Basically, negotiations had been really just halting throughout the strike between hospitals and nurses. They did have mediators there to help move things along, and eventually were negotiating regularly under pressure from the mayor and the governor. After about a month, the mediators were like, "Okay, here's the final agreements." There were some things that overlapped with all the hospitals, like a 12% raise over three years, which those raises each year were a little delayed. Ultimately, nurses were saying, "This is just keeping up with inflation. It's not much more than that."

At Mount Sinai and Montefiore, the majority of nurses voted to approve these contracts, but New York Presbyterian's bargaining committee said, "No, we're not ready to commit to this. We still have a couple outstanding things."

Janae Pierre: That's right. The other two hospital systems, their strike had ended, but New York Presbyterian, they were still at the negotiating table.

Caroline Lewis: They were like, "We've been on strike for a month, and we'll say when it's the final deal." Then, the president of NYSNA and other New York State Nurses Association officials, they actually sent out an email to New York Presbytery nurses anyway saying, "Hey, we have a final deal. It's ready for you to vote on," and really endorsed them voting on it, even though the bargaining committee rejected the deal.

Nancy Hagans: Hello, Presby members. My name is Nancy Hagans, president of NYSNA.

Pat Kane: I'm Pat Kane, executive director of NYSNA.

Nancy Hagans: This has been an incredible campaign and strike.

Janae Pierre: This is more drama.

Caroline Lewis: Oh, yes. I was not supposed to see this video. This was an internal video that was sent out to the nurses with the email ballot.

Nancy Hagans: What's in this email? You have a link to a personal ballot to vote on the deal. We hope you vote yes.

Caroline Lewis: You can hear the president of NYSNA, Nancy Hagans, encouraging people to just sign off on it.

Nancy Hagans: To be clear, we have a complete deal. If you vote yes, you will have a new NYSNA NYP contract.

Caroline Lewis: Then you had online the nurses at New York Presbyterian saying, "Don't vote yes, vote no." Overwhelmingly, nurses sided with their bargaining committee and voted against the contract. Nurses at New York Presbyterian and the other hospitals all actually marched on the New York State Nurses Association headquarters protesting their own union officials. At that point, things were folding in on themselves.

Janae Pierre: That's certainly unusual, right?

Caroline Lewis: Yes, it was a tough moment, but nurses did go back to the bargaining table, and they eventually did get these extra job protections. They didn't get the additional full-time nurses they had been fighting for, but they got a little bit more of what they were looking for, and so they said, "Okay, now we can vote to ratify it," and they did, and that strike ended as well.

Janae Pierre: I'm curious to know about that patient you brought up earlier, Jamie Senna. Did she decide to go ahead with her surgery or no?

Caroline Lewis: Actually, she did get a call from Mount Sinai after our story came out, offering to reschedule her surgery during the strike, but she was Hesitant about it.

Jamie Senna: I don't know, it was just this sense of like, I would be like another drop in the bucket towards things going back to normal for the hospital without taking care of the nurses.

Caroline Lewis: This is a somewhat extreme case, but she said she ultimately decided not to have the surgery during the strike because she wanted to support the nurses and what they were fighting for. I heard that from some other patients as well, that even though they wanted the strike to end, they ultimately supported the nurses. Jamie ended up getting care at NYU Langone instead.

Janae Pierre: Yes, and Jamie didn't want a travel nurse.

Caroline Lewis: Yes. She actually told me. I asked her, "Is it because you were nervous about the travel nurse?" She said, "No, I just didn't want to undermine the nurse's cause," which I thought was interesting. Certainly, that's not something nurses ask people to do. They say, "You're not crossing the picket line if you go get care," but some people I spoke to really felt that way.

Janae Pierre: A lot of what both sides were citing in this are so very real, from federal funding cuts that will affect Medicaid to AI in healthcare. It feels like so much is changing around the country right now, and a lot of it is playing out in healthcare. This agreement that was reached works for now, but could we be right back here in three years again?

Caroline Lewis: I think you make a good point there. Nurses and hospitals will always say strikes are a last resort, but I don't think it's out of the question that we could be back here in three years or that things could at least continue to be very tense. I think the strike ratcheted up tensions. The union was filing a lot of unfair labor practice complaints in the weeks leading up to the strike and during the strike. I spoke with a labor historian at CUNY, Joshua Freeman, who laid out the forces we're dealing with here.

Joshua Freeman: These nonprofit hospitals are gigantic and, in many ways, act much more like private sector corporations than traditional charity-type organizations. They have become very cost-conscious and, even over the last three years, much tougher in trying to hold down labor costs and fight organized labor. On the other hand, the nurses and other health professionals have become one of the most militant groups among American workers.

Caroline Lewis: Healthcare strikes have actually been on the rise across the country. This is not just happening here. Our strike actually overlapped with a massive 30,000-person strike at Kaiser Permanente in California. If you went on the travel nurse message boards or the strike nurse message boards, people were comparing notes, whether they should sign up in California or New York, which strike should I work? Certainly, there are these other forces in healthcare, and experts say the trends driving these labor disputes are not going away anytime soon.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's, Caroline Lewis. Thanks so much, Caroline, for breaking this all down for us.

Caroline Lewis: Thanks, Janae. It's good to take stock of the whole thing.

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Janae Pierre: Thank you for listening to NYC Now. I'm Jhene Pierre. See you next time.

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