January 17, 2026 NEW YORK CITY — The picket lines are growing, the chants are getting louder, and the divide between the boardroom and the bedside has never been wider.
As the historic New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) strike grinds into its fifth grueling day, a high-stakes game of chicken is unfolding across the city’s most prestigious medical institutions. While 15,000 nurses shiver on the sidewalks of Manhattan and the Bronx, a bombshell revelation about executive compensation has turned a local labor dispute into a full-blown war over the soul of American healthcare.
The $26 Million Man vs. The Frontline
The numbers are staggering. While hospital systems like Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian claim they cannot meet union demands for safe staffing and fair benefits, tax filings tell a different story.
Since 2020, CEO compensation at these "not-for-profit" giants has skyrocketed by over 54%. The most glaring example? NewYork-Presbyterian CEO Steve Corwin, whose 2024 total compensation hit a jaw-dropping $26.3 million.
Break it down, and the math is haunting:
"In just one day, the CEO made more money than many New York City families make in an entire year," NYSNA leaders charged in a scathing Friday release.
"Sabotage" and Slander: The War of Words
The conflict turned ugly this week as Mount Sinai executives leveled explosive accusations against their own staff. The hospital announced it had fired three nurses—including two new mothers—alleging they "sabotaged" emergency drills by hiding supplies from the agency "traveler" nurses brought in to break the strike.
The union hit back immediately, calling the move a "war against nurses" and a desperate attempt to scapegoat frontline workers to justify the millions spent on expensive replacement labor. Mount Sinai has already onboarded 1,400 temporary nurses to keep the doors open, even as 80% of their permanent nursing staff remains on the street.
Negotiations Stall in the Midnight Hour
Despite a marathon session that lasted past midnight on Thursday, "very little progress" has been made. For the first time since Monday, 70 union members were allowed into the room to observe the talks, only to watch hospital executives reject revised proposals without offering a single counter-offer.
“Hospitals are willing to keep frontline nurses out in the cold instead of at the bedsides of our patients where we want to be,” said NYSNA President Nancy Hagans.
