Concerned Nurses of New Jersey believes collective bargaining has helped nurses secure safer workplaces, stronger professional protections and better working conditions for generations. The right to organize and negotiate collectively is an important part of advancing the nursing profession and ensuring nurses have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect patient care.
Most labor negotiations are resolved through good-faith bargaining without a strike. We believe every reasonable opportunity to reach an agreement should be pursued before patient care is disrupted and nurses sacrifice financial security.
Nurses also recognize that federal funding cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies are putting added financial strain on health systems across the nation that could impact staffing and operations.
When negotiations become prolonged or a strike occurs, the consequences often extend beyond the bargaining table. Nurses, patients, families and communities all share in the impact.
Extended labor disputes can create significant challenges for everyone involved.
For nurses:
For patients and communities:
Concerned Nurses of New Jersey supports negotiations that are fair, respectful and focused on reaching agreements that strengthen the nursing profession while protecting the patients and communities who depend on the care we deliver.
Successful collective bargaining requires patience, preparation and good-faith negotiations. While every negotiation is different, prolonged strikes can carry financial consequences that may take years for nurses and their families to recover.
The following case studies illustrate how extended labor disputes can affect nurses financially, even when contracts ultimately include wage increases.
More than 15,000 nurses at New York Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and Montefiore voted to walk off the job on Jan. 12, 2026, beginning the largest and longest nurses’ strike in New York history. Though the strike ended 41 days later, “the contentious relationship between the nurses’ union and hospital executives has only become more bitter during the strike.”
“I do want to go back. I miss my patients. I miss my job. And we are all out of money.”
– Cagatay Celik, nurse educator at New York Presbyterian, who told Gothamist he felt “betrayed” by union leadership. (Gothamist, Feb. 11, 2026)
“I’ve been working since I was 16. I have my master’s degree, my bachelor’s. I never thought I would be in this position, unemployed and uninsured.”
– Marjorie Abreu, a NICU nurse at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, who pulled her son from day care out of fear he’d get sick and she wouldn’t be able to afford his care. (The City Reporter, Jan. 22, 2026)
About 31,000 registered nurses and other health care professionals across California and Hawaii went on strike in January 2026. Workers were on the picket lines for four weeks without pay and did not receive retroactive pay when they returned to work. The union also did not offer financial assistance for the nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists, pharmacists and others relinquishing wages to strike.
“I am constantly in this state of low-grade panic. I really am good at not sounding or looking panicked because the work I do needs calmness, but I don’t feel calm at all.”
– Michelle Baird, a nurse midwife who has delivered babies and cared for mothers since 2015 at Kaiser facilities in Oakland, Berkeley and Pinole. (KQED, Feb. 20, 2026)
Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital authorize a strike that lasts over four months, costing nurses $60,000 on average in lost wages and benefits before agreeing to a reported contract with no retroactive pay and an 8.5% increase over three years. It will take over 10 years for nurses and their families to recover financially. (Note: Shortly after the agreement was reached, local union leaders were removed and investigated by the national union.)
“It wasn’t just a walkout; it was a sacrifice … We were away from the bedside for 125 days, without pay, health insurance; we spent our summer on the picket line.”
– ICU nurse Hummad Syed, BSN, RN. (Nurse Journal, Dec. 11, 2023)
Nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital authorize the longest strike in state history, lasting over 300 days. Nurses go without pay and benefits for nearly 10 months, costing an average of $75,000 in lost wages before agreeing to a reported contract with no retroactive pay and an average 2.0% annual increase. It will take over 30 years for nurses and their families to recover. (Note: Shortly after the agreement nurses in Worchester voted to decertify the union.)
“Not an easy experience by any means. There’s ups and downs. There’s trauma involved. Emotional and physical trauma when you’ve been on strike so long. But you also learn a lot about yourself.”
– Marlena Pellegrino, co-chair of the Nurses Local Bargaining Unit. (WBZ-TV, Jan. 3, 2022)
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