Mayor Zohran Mamdani flashed his Democratic socialist colors Monday as he meddled in a heated contract dispute — joining thousands of striking nurses from Big Apple private hospitals on the picket line.
The controversial move put the lefty mayor at odds with the CEOs at at Mount Sinai, New York-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center, whom he called out as “the wealthiest in the entire city” while griping that “these executives are not having difficulty making ends meet.”
“The hospital executives who run these hospitals, the ones where these hardworking nurses are asking for what they deserve, these executives are not having difficulty making ends meet,” Mamdani said alongside striking staffers outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia in Washington Heights.
“But for too many of the 15,000 NYSNA nurses who are on strike, they are not able to make their ends meet,” he said. “They are not asking for a multimillion-dollar salary.”
Thousands of nurses in red rallied outside the Manhattan hospital, hooting and rattling noisemakers. They held signs with phrases such as “At least the blood on our hands washes off” and “Nurses are the beating heart of the medical system.”
Hospital officials and the New York State Nurses Association have traded barbs, accusing each other of being greedy in disputes over wages, benefits and staffing — with vitriol spewing from both sides — as 15,000 staffers began striking Monday.
“They bragged that they spent $100 million to hire out-of-town nurses to replace us while we strike,” NYSNA president Nancy Hagans said.
“They could have easily have put that money toward our health insurance,” she said. “Nurses are asking for safe staffing. We’re asking for work protection against workplace violence. We’re asking for the greedy CEOs not to take away our medical coverage.”
Critics questioned why Mamdani, who oversees the city’s public hospital system, would take sides in the prickly labor dispute, something Mayor Eric Adams shied away from during a 2023 nurses’ strike.
The mayor’s open support for the private hospital nurses could backfire if the tables are ever turned, one hospital official who asked to remain anonymous said.
“Ultimately, the Mayor will learn that his public hospitals are next in line to face NYSNA’s costly and unsustainable demands—leaving taxpayers to pick up an even bigger tab,” the source said.
The stalemate between the three major medical systems and the striking nurses got off to an acrimonious start — with one of the healthcare giants accusing the union of attempting to protect members who show up for work drunk or stoned.
The accusation came from brass at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, which accused the New York State Nurses Association of striking to prevent tougher discipline against inebriated hospital workers.
“NYSNA leadership’s demand that a nurse not be terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job is another example of putting their own self-interest before patient safety,” Montefiore said in a statement to The Post Monday.
NYSNA shot back: “Montefiore’s desperate attempt to slander New York City’s nurse heroes shows just how low they are willing to go to avoid settling fair contracts that protect Bronx patients and nurses.
“Montefiore nurses are fighting for safe staffing and protections from workplace violence,” the union said. “Meanwhile, hospital executives show their disrespect for nurses by refusing to agree to our proposals to protect patient and nurse safety, and blatantly mischaracterizing one of our basic workplace proposals, which hospitals around the city and state have already adopted. If Montefiore wants to demonize and stigmatize substance use disorders, then they shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves a healthcare facility.”
One nurse on the picket line at Montefiore rolled her eyes and called the claim “complete BS.”
“Do you honestly think if one of our staff showed up she’d be allowed to keep her job?” she said. “It’s completely ridiculous to imply that drunk nurses have anything to do with why we’re striking, and if anything, it’s degrading to us to imply that.
“Our strike has nothing to do with protecting nurses who, if they show up to work drunk or high, clearly shouldn’t be working in a hospital,” she said.
An image on Instagram, meanwhile, showed a bar in Brooklyn — Block Hill Station — offering buy-one-get-one-free beers to help strikers fighting “for patient safety and fair staff benefits.”
“Love this! Free beer!” the post said, alongside prayer hands emojis. “All Striking Nurses: Buy One Get One On Select Beers.”
While the two sides were duking it out, everyday New Yorkers could pay the price.
“The wait was longer. The transfusion was longer. Normally things move very efficiently, but that wasn’t the case this time,” said Luis Del Valle, who brought his 89-year-old mother for a weekly transfusion at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.
“Everything just took longer,” he said. “We got through it, but it wasn’t fun. I’m definitely hoping this gets resolved before our next appointment.”
Javier Morales. whose brother was in the ICU with pneumonia, had a similar gripe.
“It definitely felt like a staff shortage,” he said. “My brother needs a lot of monitoring, and normally the nurses are in and out constantly. But there was a lot more waiting. Call buttons take longer. No one dropped the ball, but it does make me nervous.
“You get accustomed to a certain standard of care, of things running a certain way, and I didn’t see that today,” Morales said. “If something big goes down, or if a lot of emergencies happen all at once, I don’t get the feeling that the nurses on staff can handle it.”
