A massive nurse walkout leaves hospitals and patients scrambling for solutions
Rabbi G. was scheduled to have spinal surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital to address a condition his doctors feared could lead to serious risks if left untreated. His children arranged to take turns being at his side and for one of them to spend Shabbos nearby in Washington Heights.
Then everything changed.
“I remember hearing something about a nurses’ strike in New York and thinking, ‘What does that have to do with me?’ ” said Yaakov*, Rabbi G’s son. “The next day, my brother called me to say my father’s surgery was being moved to another hospital we’d never heard of.”
Comparatively, Rabbi G.’s situation was better than many in similar positions. The walkout by 15,000 nurses led to countless canceled surgeries, causing backlogs likely to last for months.
At press time, the strike looked likely to head into its second week, with both sides digging in. It’s already the longest nurses strike in recent memory, eclipsing the three-day walkout in 2023. Although that dispute led to more favorable contracts for nurses, their hopes this time around for staffing and pay increases, as well as protections for health benefits, have been frustrated by hospital management, which seems determined to hold its ground.
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