On Monday, hundreds of striking nurses focused their ire in one direction—toward Governor Kathy Hochul, marching to her Midtown offices to highlight how they say she has been helping executives at deep-pocketed hospitals drag out contract negotiations.
The march to Hochul's offices kicked off a week of rolling actions by union members, as talks continue and union members now have gone weeks without being paid. The strike of over 31,000 nurses at three area hospital networks—Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and New York-Presbyterian—is entering its fourth week, far eclipsing 2023's three-day strike. Nurses on Monday said a major reason why it has gone on this long is because of Hochul's order, issued a few days before the strike, allowing replacement nurses who aren't licensed in New York to take their place. Hospitals have already spent more than $100 million on travel nurses and short-term staffing.
"It's not that Hochul hasn't done enough or that she's ignoring this, she's actually helping the employers to keep us out longer," said Goodness Iheanachor, a medical surgery nurse at Mount Sinai's hospital in the Upper East Side. "We need to make sure she knows the order really hurt us. We are out here without health care, and she's putting our lives in jeopardy."