Bernie Sanders and Mayor Mamdani Join Picket Line as NYC Nurses’ Strike Drags On
Both politicians bill themselves as Democratic Socialists and handed out donuts outside Mount Sinai West as the strike by the New York State Nurses Association against three NYC hospitals entered its ninth day.
| 20 Jan 2026 | 09:36
Senator Bernie Sanders (at mic) and Mayor Zohran Mamdani address nurses in bitter cold outside Mount Sinai West hospital on Tenth Ave. and W. 59th St. on Jan. 20 during the ninth day of the strike. (
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for all sides to return to the bargaining table as he made his second appearance with striking nurses, this time outside of Mount Sinai West on Tenth Ave. on Jan. 20. (
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The inflateable rat, which union organizers bring to job sites when non-union workers cross a picket line, was on display by striking nurses at Mount Sinai West on Jan. 20. (
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Several members of the cab drivers union parked their cars alongside the picket line with signs saying, “Nurses Are Heroes! Solidarity Forever!” (
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As the strike by nurses drags on, other political issues are percolating on the picket line. One picket line worker added to her sign: “No ICE, Just a Living Wage” and “No Scabs. No Greenland.” (
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Another cab driver shows support for striking nurses outside Mount Sinai West on Jan. 20. (
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On a bitter cold morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined a rally at Mount Sinai West on Jan. 20 as the strike by 15,000 nurses dragged into its ninth day.
The New York State Nurses Association is on strike against three New York City health care giants: Mount Sinai, New York-Presbyterian and Montefiore Health Systems in the Bronx. The current strike is now three times longer than the last nurses’ strike in 2023, which lasted three days involved 7,000 nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefieore.
Mamdani called for both sides to return to the bargaining table while Sanders drew chants of “Ber-Nie! Ber-Nie” with his more fiery speech in which he blasted the multi-million dollar salaries of the CEOs of the three hospitals and for hiring replacement nurses while staff nurses were on strike.
“The people of this country are sick and tired of the greed in the health care industry,” Sanders said. “They’re tired of the drug companies ripping us off, the insurance companies ripping us off, paying hospital executives, getting huge salaries.”
“In a broken and dysfunctional health care system, nurses are the people who keep us alive,” said Sanders.
He ticked off the compensation packages which he said the CEOs of the three hospitals received last year: New York-Presbyterian Hospital $26 million; Montefiore $16 million and Mount Sinai $5 million.
He also blasted the use of traveling nurses in the three hospitals, which has been a particular hot button issue. Traveling nurses are being paid up to $9,000 a week for five, 12-hour shifts, according to Bloomberg, which it reported is roughly three times the average salary of a staff nurse.
“Don’t tell me you can’t treat nurses with dignity when you’re spending hundreds of millions on travel nurses,” said Sanders.
The hospitals counter that they are hiring nurses to maintain health care for patients and have said nurses are being irresponsible and putting patients at risk by striking.
Both Sanders, the Brooklyn-born Senator who represents Vermont, and Mamdani, the Ugandan-born former Assembly member from Astoria, both bill themselves as Democratic Socialists. But Mamdani seemed content to let Sanders deliver the most impassioned speech.
The mayor called for a return to the bargaining table. .
“Too often when we see a strike, people forget that that is not where workers want to be,” Mamdani said who had also stopped by a Mount Sinai picket on day one of the strike on Jan. 12. “A strike is an act of last resort,” Mamdani said. “What workers want is to be back at work. So what this will mean is making that possible. And so we call on every side to come back to that negotiating table. Have a swift and urgent resolution.”
The workers have a range of demands, from no cuts to health care benefits, wage hikes of 10 percent a year and protection from workplace violence.
Fears were increased by recent confrontations in and around city hospitals. Police shot dead someone in November who was threatening Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East side and earlier this month at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist. a disturbed patient was shot dead after taking two people hostage, using a busted plastic toilet seat.
The hospitals for their part counter that the nurses salary demands are exorbitant and reckless, especially in light of cuts in federal health care funds.
In 2025, according to Bandana Resources, the starting salary at New York-Presbyterian was $126,000, Mount Sinai $123,300 and Montefiore $118,000.
After 20 years, nurses at Mount Sinai and New York Presbyterian receive $148,000 with Montefiore not far behind at $146,000.
The three hospitals have hired Heller, Inc. a crisis management public relations firm to get their message out during the strike. But the nurses appear to be winning the public relations battle. Parked on the street adjacent to the striking workers on Jan. 20 were several cabs with signs saying: “NURSES ARE HEROES! SOLIDARITY FOREVER!” Numerous cars and even an FDNY engine loudly honked horns as they drove past.
Mount Sinai and the union returned to the bargaining table with a mediator on Jan. 15. While the talks dragged on well past midnight and into Jan. 16, there was reportedly little progress and the two sides have not met since. Montefiore has not met with the union since the strike started on January 12.