The New York State Nurses Association reached a tentative agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian on Friday, Feb. 20, after a 39-day strike — the longest nursing strike in New York City history. The strike is not formally over until nurses ratify the agreement.
The 4,200 nurses secured commitments to hire more nurses in key understaffed units, including the emergency department and the cardiac catheterization lab (cath lab), where heart procedures are performed. The deal also includes improved enforceable staffing standards, workplace violence protections, and 12% raises over three years — with no additional out-of-pocket health care costs for frontline nurses. The union said the tentative agreement also adds new guardrails on the use of artificial intelligence and strengthens protections for immigrant nurses.
The contract is pending a ratification vote Friday and Saturday, Feb. 20–21. If approved, nurses return to work next week.
Beth Loudin, a neonatal nurse and rank-and-file representative at the bargaining table, said NewYork-Presbyterian agreed to prioritize hiring in the emergency department and the cath lab — the two most understaffed units. Loudin helped lead last week’s rejection of an earlier deal, which nurses voted down 3,099 to 867, saying it did not include the staffing ratios and numbers they demanded.
“Today, we made significant progress on the things we had clearly defined were lacking,” Loudin said. “We think this is a win for the future of health care and for our communities, and it really speaks to the power of working people.”
The NewYork-Presbyterian nurses were the last holdouts in what began as the largest nurses’ strike in New York City history, with 15,000 participants across three hospital systems walking off the job on Jan. 12. Nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefiore ratified their agreements and returned to work over the Presidents Day weekend.
For more than a month, nurses picketed in freezing temperatures without pay or health insurance. The three hospital systems collectively spent approximately $100 million hiring travel nurses — some paid as much as $9,000 a week — to keep hospitals running. NewYork-Presbyterian CEO Steve Corwin, meanwhile, made $26.3 million in total compensation in 2024. Thirty of the hospital’s executives make more than $1 million a year.
The regularly scheduled arbitration dates in the new contract address one of the nurses’ sharpest grievances. During the strike, an arbitrator ruled that pediatric intensive care unit nurses at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital were owed nearly $400,000 for chronically understaffed shifts dating back to 2023. NewYork-Presbyterian has appealed every such arbitration award to federal court — a federal judge accused the hospital of “gamesmanship” to avoid paying. Under the old contract, some staffing cases took nearly three years to reach a hearing.
When NewYork-Presbyterian tried to break the strike by emailing staff to gauge interest in returning to work, fewer than 100 nurses signed up to cross the picket line, Loudin said.
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