Mamdani, dozens of other pols press NYC hospitals to cut labor deal with nurses as deadline looms

Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Dec 18, 2025

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NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and more than 100 other local politicians are putting pressure on some of New York City’s largest private hospitals to settle a labor dispute with their unionized nurses before their contracts expire at the end of the year.

In an open letter shared exclusively with the Daily News on Wednesday, Mamdani and the 116 other elected leaders wrote that the nurses’ demands for better wages and other perks aren’t just reasonable but necessary at a time “our health care system is under attack” across the U.S.

“Federal Medicaid and other health care cuts will mean more uninsured patients and less hospital funding. We are united with the NYSNA nurses who are demanding that hospitals do everything possible to maintain the services and staff our communities need,” the elected officials wrote in the letter, which the New York State Nurses Association plans to hand-deliver Friday at bargaining sessions with the 12 private hospitals’ management.

“We call on the hospital administration to agree to strong and enforceable safe staffing standards that ensure quality care in our communities. Providing safe working conditions where health care professionals can thrive and deliver quality care is essential to retaining enough nurses for safe staffing.”

Among the other elected officials who signed the letter were incoming City Comptroller Mark Levine, incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The signatories also include the city’s four Democratic borough presidents, 19 state senators, 45 state Assembly members and 40 City Council members.

NYSNA represents 20,000 nurses whose labor contracts expire Dec. 31. Their employers include New York-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, Montefiore, Maimonides and safety net hospitals in 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.”