Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani, alongside over 100 local political figures, is urging some of New York City’s largest private hospitals to resolve a labor dispute with their unionized nurses before contracts conclude at the year’s end.
In an exclusive open letter revealed to the Daily News on Wednesday, Mamdani and 116 other elected officials expressed that the nurses’ requests for improved wages and benefits are not only justified but crucial, especially as the nation’s healthcare system faces significant challenges.
“With federal Medicaid and other healthcare funding cuts looming, resulting in more uninsured patients and reduced hospital resources, we stand with the NYSNA nurses advocating for hospitals to do all they can to preserve the services and staff our communities rely on,” the letter stated. The New York State Nurses Association intends to present this letter during Friday’s negotiation sessions with the management of 12 private hospitals.
The letter further urged hospital administrations to adopt robust and enforceable safe staffing standards to ensure quality care, emphasizing that providing safe working conditions is vital for healthcare professionals to excel and for retaining an adequate number of nurses for safe staffing levels.
Among the notable signatories of the letter are incoming City Comptroller Mark Levine, future City Council Speaker Julie Menin, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The letter also bears the signatures of the city’s four Democratic borough presidents, 19 state senators, 45 state Assembly members, and 40 City Council members.
The New York State Nurses Association represents 20,000 nurses whose contracts are set to expire on December 31. Their employers include major institutions such as New York-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, Montefiore, Maimonides, and various safety net hospitals across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.
According to union officials, NYSNA presented hospital executives with proposals in September that included suggested salary increases, better benefits and labor protections against Artificial Intelligence in the workplace, among other provisions. The officials said many of the hospitals haven’t responded to the proposals yet, including on wages.
A New York-Presbyterian rep said its leaders “respect and value the central role our nurses play,” but didn’t directly respond to the charge that some of the private hospitals haven’t responded to NYSNA’s proposals.
“We continue to bargain in good faith and remain hopeful that NYSNA leadership shares our commitment to reaching a fair and reasonable contract agreement that recognizes the challenging realities of today’s health care environment,” the Presbytarian rep added.
Most of the other hospitals didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who’s being sworn in as mayor Jan. 1, has positioned himself as an ally of organized labor for years. Since his Nov. 4 election, Mamdani and members of his transition team have appeared at multiple pickets held by striking Starbucks workers demanding better wages.
As mayor, Mamdani is going to face a different role in that he will be negotiating with the city’s public sector unions, many of which have contracts that expire at the end of 2026.
Dean Fuleihan, Mamdani’s incoming first deputy mayor, said at a forum earlier this week that Mamdani supports raising salaries for many city workers. “They also struggle through the affordability crisis,” Fuleihan said, “and some of those wages are significantly low.”
