Since January 12, 15,000 New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) members have participated in the largest and longest nurses’ strike in New York history. ISG gives full support and solidarity to these striking workers who are braving brutal attacks from the hospital corporations Mt. Sinai, Montefiore, and New York-Presbyterian, three of the largest and wealthiest private hospitals in NYC.
The strike is happening against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Nurses are seeking to protect their health insurance, win safer staffing ratios, and win strong cost-of-living pay increases. Meanwhile, the private hospital corporate executives make as much as $26.5 million a year – that’s nearly $72,000 per day. While the nurses have been on strike, the hospital corporations have taken away nurses’ health insurance, arrested nurses, brought in scabs at $10,000 per week, and threatened to hire permanent replacements. The total cost of the scabbing operation has hit $100+ million so far.
New York Democratic governor Hochul’s extension of Executive Order 56, allowing hospitals to bypass licensing, has greatly enabled hospital management to hire scabs during the strike. This is the Democratic Party in action supporting the corporations all the way. Mayor Mamdani has spoken on nurses rally platforms saying he supports the strike, but hasn’t demanded an end to Hochul’s orders, and in fact has endorsed Hochul for reelection. Striking nurses were arrested for taking direct action outside the Greater New York Hospital Association by the NYPD under Mamdani’s control.
The New York nurses’ union and its members cannot rely on the Democratic Party to represent their interests. The same goes for anti-ICE protestors in Minnesota and across the country. The Democratic Party has sent city police and the National Guard to repress protestors and to defend ICE agents, including ICE agents who murdered anti-ICE activists Renee Good and Alex Pretti – Pretti was a union nurse. The labor movement and all working people need to organize independently of the two corporate political parties and to help build a workers’ party transforming the labor unions into fighting organisations and building mass democratic assemblies to support strikes, fight layoffs, and defend our communities from state repression.
The Independent Socialist Group supports the 15,000 NYC union nurses on strike in their fight for a strong contract. We call for:
- Restore nurses’ healthcare now!
- Wage increases that more than make up for the affordability crisis. The hospitals are making billions from nurses’ labor.
- Stop the union-busting! Stop arresting nurses!
- End the use of Executive Order 56 that allows the hospital corporations to hire scab nurses!
- Corporations out of healthcare. Healthcare for all and a nationwide public healthcare system.
- For the labor movement to help fund and build an independent workers’ party, not the Democratic or the Republican parties.
Picketline info can be found at www.nysna.org/strike
Donate to the strike fund: https://nysna.tfaforms.net/5111001
Independent Socialist Group 