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Historic nurses’ strikes on both coasts of the United States took place simultaneously within the first two months of 2026, demonstrating the power of collective bargaining and solidarity in a common struggle against monied interests.

New York City’s largest nurses strike ever, numbering at about 15,000 striking nurses at its peak, culminated in agreements for workers at three private hospitals in the city after a one-month work stoppage that began on January 12 and ended on February 13. About 4,200 nurses at a fourth hospital ended their strike on February 21, after six weeks on the picket line.

At the same time, more than 30,000 nurses and other health care workers in California and Hawaii, employed by nonprofit health care provider Kaiser Permanente, ended their month-long work stoppage on February 24.

Members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), affiliated with National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, went out on a strike to protect their health insurance and pension benefits. Dania Muñoz, a nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, explained that the private hospitals she and others were taking on are “some of the top paid hospital systems in the country.”

Muñoz was perplexed by the hospitals’ initial attempt to pull back on paying for health insurance premiums for their nursing staff. “They just said it was too expensive,” she explained, and yet, “they’re the ones that talk to health insurance companies and set rates.”

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“Health care for health care workers … is definitely one of the biggest things that we were fighting for and that we were able to secure,” said Muñoz. According to NYSNA, “nurses at all four hospitals maintained their health and pension benefits, and won increased wages, protections against workplace violence, and safeguards against artificial intelligence.” This win came in spite of the fact that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order making it easier for hospitals to hire scab replacements for striking nurses — an order the nurses denounced by marching to Hochul’s office.

“Nurses at all four hospitals maintained their health and pension benefits, and won increased wages, protections against workplace violence, and safeguards against artificial intelligence.”

“Nurses at all four hospitals maintained their health and pension benefits, and won increased wages, protections against workplace violence, and safeguards against artificial intelligence.”

Lucky Longoria is a pediatric nurse at a Kaiser facility in Downey, California, and a member of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP). According to her union, the unfair labor practice strike, sparked by Kaiser walking away from the bargaining table, was the largest open-ended work stoppage of health care professionals in U.S. history. Longoria said she and her fellow health care professionals were on the picket line in part because “they were going to roll back our benefits.”

Like New York City nurses, West Coast Kaiser health professionals were striking over poor staffing and wages that have not kept up........

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