Governor Kathy Hochul Is Undermining Striking New York Nurses

[Omaha Steve]

https://jacobin.com/2026/02/governor-kathy-hochul-is-undermining-striking-new-york-nurses

By Alex N. Press

As a historic nurses’ strike enters its fourth week, New York governor Kathy Hochul has protected hospitals from the strike’s impact by making it easier to hire scabs and doing little to stop executives from dragging out a fight over staffing and safety.

On Monday morning, with temperatures below freezing, New York City nurses began the fourth week of the largest nursing strike in the city’s history, which has seen some fifteen thousand nurses across multiple Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian facilities walk off the job.

Hundreds of nurses kicked off the week by gathering near Grand Central Terminal and marching to Governor Kathy Hochul’s nearby office, aiming pressure at a state leader who has repeatedly extended an executive order allowing hospitals to more easily hire temporary and out-of-state replacement staff (referred to in union parlance as “scabs”), blunting the leverage of the work stoppage. Nurses’ demand is specific: Hochul should not extend the executive order again, removing a measure that has made it easier for hospital systems to staff around the strike. The latest extension expires today.

The striking nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), walked off the job at private hospitals across New York City on January 12. The strike does not include all NYSNA members statewide, nor nurses at public hospitals like those in the NYC Health + Hospitals system, who work under separate contracts.

FULL story at link above.


Nurses from NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center strike outside the hospital on January 12, 2026, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

[GiqueCee]

1. It would appear that...

... Governor Hochul is rather short-sighted.
Sooner or later, it is inevitable that she will have need of nursing care. At 67 years of age, as that inevitability draws ever closer, she might want to ask herself, "Do I want to entrust my care to an over-worked, under-paid, and undoubtedly exhausted nurse who mistakenly believed that her governor would would not hesitate to put a valuable nurse's critical interests ahead of the greedy interests of under-worked and over-paid hospital administrators?" Hmmm?

Just a thought.

[lapucelle]

2. Sorry, but Kathy Hochul's executive order protects patients in NYS hospitals.

That's her job.

[lapucelle]

3. Jacobin needs to clean up its own mess: Jacobin Accused of Reneging on Wage Deal in British Takeover of Tribune Magazine

It's multi-millionaire socialist owner is infamous for his own labor abuses.

Jacobin Accused of Reneging on Wage Deal in British Takeover of Tribune Magazine

In his bid to take over the historic British left-wing magazine, The Tribune, Jacobin publisher Bhaskar Sunkara is being accused of reneging on wage deal by employees of the paper, who kept the publication alive during struggling times. Tribune was once the home of such greats as George Orwell and has since become the leading publication associated with the influential Momentum faction within the Labor Party.

snip==================

Workers say that Sunkara promised that if workers took a settlement of only 70% of the back wages that they were owed that he would give them future work after taking over the publication. However, Sunkara in a statement to Payday confirmed that he would not bring the staffers back.

The workers in a series of open letters have accused Sunkara of lying to them. “In the capitalist world someone who buys an ailing company and dumps its committed workers is known as an asset-stripper or robber baron, but at least they don’t claim to be socialists,” said former Tribune employee Ian Hernon.

snip====================

The brash 29-year-old Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder and publisher of the Brooklyn based socialist magazine Jacobin, has proven to be one of the most controversial figures in the left press: known for increasing the reach of socialist writing while engaging in labor practices far less than socialist.

https://paydayreport.com/jacobin-publisher-accused-of-reneging-on-wage-deal-in-takeover-of-british-magazine-the-tribune/