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NYC nurses strike ends after NewYork-Presbyterian nurses ratify new contract
By
Giulia Heyward
and
Herb Pinder
Published Feb 21, 2026
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By
Giulia Heyward
and
Herb Pinder
Published Feb 21, 2026
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NewYork-Presbyterian nurses have ratified a new three-year contract, ending the largest and longest walkout by nurses in New York City history, the nurses’ union announced on Saturday evening.
The agreement was backed by 93% of the nurses voting, according to the New York State Nurses Association.
The 4,200 nurses in the NewYork-Presbyterian system will begin returning to work next week, the union said.
The NewYork-Presbyterian nurses were the last holdouts in the 41-day strike, which began on Jan. 12 and saw nearly 15,000 nurses at the hospital, along with Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West and Montefiore Medical Center walk off the job and form picket lines on snow-covered sidewalks across the city. Their prior agreements ended Dec. 31.
More than 10,000 nurses with the Montefiore and Mount Sinai hospital systems ratified new contracts with their employers last week and began returning to work the following weekend. After an extended round of bargaining, the NewYork-Presbyterian nurses early Friday announced a tentative agreement with hospital management.
“We are so happy with the wins we achieved, and now the fight to enforce these contracts and hold our employers accountable begins,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said. “NYSNA nurses showed what it means to advocate for patients, and this moment will go down in history as a win for our communities, in the fight for health care justice, and for the labor movement.”
The NewYork-Presbyterian deal includes a roughly 12% salary increase over three years, the same as that won by nurses at the other hospital systems. It also includes commitments from NewYork-Presbyterian to boost staffing, implement new workplace safety measures such as protecting immigrant patients and nurses, and maintain nurses’ health benefits.
The contract is also the first to include protections against artificial intelligence.
“Nurses remained strong through one of the hardest fights the labor movement has seen in this city in years and proved to employers that when you mess with nurses, you have to face the city’s entire labor movement,” said NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane. “The support that community organizations, patients and the public gave us kept us strong against these powerful behemoths and, in the end, we achieved wins that will improve care for New York.”
Labor leaders and a number of local and state politicians showed their support for the nurses’ strike, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The voting Friday and Saturday marked the second time in two weeks that NewYork-Presbyterian nurses weighed in on a new contract.
NYSNA leadership launched a ratification vote last week, even though the nurse bargaining committee at NewYork-Presbyterian had panned the deal that was then on the table. The committee said that proposal did not include sufficient staffing gains or employment protections.
The move caused a rift within the union, and nurses overwhelmingly voted against the package – while their counterparts at Montefiore and Mount Sinai ratified their agreements by wide margins. Ahead of the affirmative vote announced on Saturday, the nurse bargaining committee lent its support, spelling the end of what the nurses’ union has said was the largest and longest nurses’ strike in city history.
“This has been a long, hard fight, but we are proud of what we achieved,” Beth Loudin, a nurse on the bargaining committee at NewYork-Presbyterian, said in a statement Friday after the tentative accord was struck. “This is a win for the future of healthcare for our communities and a testament to the power of working people.”
NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson Angela Karafazli said on Friday the deal “reflects our tremendous respect for our nurses."
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Health and Science
economy
new york city
Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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Herb Pinder
Herb is the editor of the Race & Justice unit. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-922-2497.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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