The nurses, about 100 strong, stood outside the hospital bundled in red hats and scarves. “She Works Hard for the Money” blasted through three speakers posted on the street. The health care workers had been doing this for nearly 40 days at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital. But something had changed.
As a strike by nurses at the hospital continued, the number on the picket line had dwindled. The sidewalks outside the hospital are no longer crowded with a sea of hundreds and hundreds of nurses clad in red. And feelings of betrayal, frustration and restiveness are in the air.
The more than 4,000 nurses who work at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, one of the city’s largest hospitals, are still fighting to make sure they have job security and sufficient staffing. But they’re alone now.
Nurses at the two other health systems that had been affected by a strike that began Jan. 12 — Montefiore Medical Center and three hospitals in the Mount Sinai system — voted to end their strikes. But NewYork-Presbyterian nurses are still off the job, and some feel that hospital leaders have turned their back on them. Others just want to return to their wards, longing to put an end to the conflict.
On Thursday, the union and hospital officials returned to the bargaining table.
Cagatay Celik, a clinical nurse educator at NewYork-Presbyterian, said that while the nurses remain united, they are feeling the strain of the strike.
“We are feeling a little bit of pressure,” Mr. Celik said. “This is now Week 6, and we are restless to get back to work — back to our patients.”
A few blocks away, outside the children’s hospital that is part of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, the lyrics to Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” permeated the air as strikers stepped to the beat and waved their hands.
Keisha Bruington-Bragg, a nurse in the postpartum unit, danced on the picket line next to the D.J. She swayed her body to the rhythms to keep warm and to spark a chain reaction to lift her own spirits and those of her colleagues.
“Being out here with my colleagues gives me energy and motivation to fight,” Ms. Bruington-Bragg said. “I feel dejected sometimes because it’s sad we have to be out here.”
As the strike continues, many nurses are being stretched financially. Mr. Celik said that he started squirreling away money last summer, as the union made efforts to negotiate with the hospital.
He has a part-time job and took out a loan to provide a financial cushion during the strike. Mr. Celik said that he had encouraged his colleagues to follow suit or to find temporary work.
Kristina Merced, a nurse practitioner in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, said that going on strike without child care has been difficult for her family, which has had to draw down from savings.
Ms. Merced said that her husband, Joseph, who is self-employed, would normally watch their baby while she worked two or three days a week. Since the strike started, he has jumped in to take care of their 9-month-old son while Ms. Merced takes to the picket line every day.
Six weeks into the walkout, Ms. Merced said that she’s in a groove and has sacrificed too much to turn back.
“I never expected it to go this long, but at this point, I am extremely committed,” she said.
Sylvia Morales, who has been a neonatal nurse and instructor at NewYork-Presbyterian for more than 30 years, said that she had never imagined a walkout would stretch for weeks on end. Ms. Morales remembers when nurses staged a one-day strike in 1996.
She said that she feels betrayed and has found it hard to believe that nurses who provide specialized care to severely ill infants can be easily replaced with travel nurses.
“I miss my work,” she said. “I want to get back there and take care of the babies.”
Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said that the nurses’ union will not compromise on its demands for adequate staffing and job protections. Although the strike has lasted longer than anticipated, she said that the union is equipped to fight until NewYork-Presbyterian “does the right thing.”
When nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai staged a walkout in 2023 for three days, Kenneth E. Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said that it caught everyone by surprise. The hospitals were determined to be prepared this time and made arrangements to avoid disruptions to patient care.
The nurses’ union has said that its strike is motivated by concerns about the safety of nurses and their patients. Mr. Raske questioned that claim.
“How could you say you’re for patient safety and walk away from the job for six weeks?” he said. “I don’t see how that adds up.”
Samantha Latson is a Times reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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