As largest nurses’ strike in NY unfolds, union returns my check

By Alex P. Vidal

“To me, protesting and playing music go hand in hand.” – Tim Commerford

IN a hilarious coincidence, I received a letter from the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East dues supervisor Jacqueline Leung dated January 6, 2026 returning the check I sent dated December 8, 2025 to the the largest healthcare workers’ union in the United States, as the largest nurses’ strike in the history of New York City unfolded January 12.

The check represented payments for my membership dues for the months of April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December 2025.

I’m sure it has nothing to do with the ongoing strike since I am not one of those who are in the frontline, and nobody knows if I am part of it or not. Either it was a miscommunication, or somebody from the Sunnyside Community Services lost my union records.

1199SEIU represents nearly half a million nurses, technicians, home health aides, and other professionals, providing them with strong contracts, training, job security, and benefits like health insurance and pensions through labor-management funds.

It stands for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers East and is known for fighting for better patient care, wages, and working conditions in hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics, primarily in New York and the East Coast.

Nearly 15,000 nurses from several major New York City hospitals walked out on January 12, 2026, making it the largest nurses’ strike in the city’s history. There are many reasons for this strike, with staffing levels, workplace safety, and higher wages being the leading issues.

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Mount Sinai Hospital issued a statement on January 12 night that suggested fissures were apparent in the nurses’ ranks. “We had close to 20 percent of our nurses come to work today and put Mount Sinai patients first, and we expect more to do the same tomorrow and in the coming days,” a hospital spokeswoman, Lucia Lee, said in a statement on January 12 as reported Joseph Goldstein in New York Times.

The nurses’ union urged the public to be skeptical of that claim. “We have an overwhelming majority of our members signed up for picket line shifts every single day,” the union, the New York State Nurses Association, said in a statement quoted by Goldstein.

The union, meanwhile, said that Mount Sinai fired three labor and delivery nurses “on a pretextual basis driven by anti-union animus” hours before the strike started, according to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, according to Goldstein.

Two of the fired nurses Goldstein interviewed January 13, Liliana Prestia and Berina Selimovic, said they were falsely accused of keeping medical supplies away from the temporary nurses who had been hired to work during the strike.

The two nurses said they had been simply gathering supplies for an incoming patient, as they often did.

Prestia and Selimovic told Goldstein they were stunned to be fired on Sunday night, three nights after the purported incident. They claimed they had never been disciplined before in the three or so years each had worked at Mount Sinai.

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“I was taken aback by this, and shocked and disgusted by how Mount Sinai is treating its nurses,” Goldstein quoted Selimovic as saying. “I think this was purely intimidation as we were preparing to go on strike.”

Mount Sinai accused the nurses of sabotage in a statement.

“We terminated three nurses last week for interfering with patient safety by deliberately sabotaging our emergency preparedness drills” ahead of the strike, Mount Sinai said in a statement.

“This is completely unacceptable behavior, which included locking critical supplies designed to care for vulnerable newborns in conference rooms where they did not belong.”

The nurses have a range of complaints, Goldstein reported. For years, they have said many hospital units are chronically understaffed, leaving nurses with too many patients to care for all of them properly.

But in recent years, Goldstein added, the situation improved, partly because of a smaller nursing strike in 2023. More nurses were hired, and new nurse-patient ratios were introduced, with penalties imposed on hospitals if they violated the staffing rules.

But hospitals have sought to challenge those gains, in court and at the bargaining table, according to the nurses’ union.

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There are other complaints, too, Goldstein pointed out. The nurses are seeking higher pay and demanding that hospitals introduce more security at entrances to reduce workplace violence and the risk of mass shootings.

The nurses also want job security guarantees as hospitals expand the use of artificial intelligence in medical settings.

On the second day of a strike in 2023, Goldstein reported that an infant with a heart condition died in the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai. A lawsuit brought last year by the baby’s mother claims that Mount Sinai nurses, who were striking, were “inadequately replaced with unexperienced and unqualified nurses.”

In a legal filing, the hospital denied the allegations.

As this week’s strike approached, hospitals that knew they could be affected arranged for the transfer of some especially vulnerable patients — including infants in neonatal intensive care units — to other hospitals.

NewYork-Presbyterian confirmed it has transferred more than 100 patients. Still, the hospital has encouraged patients to continue to come if they need medical care.

“The safety and care of our patients remain our top priorities,” NewYork-Presbyterian said in a statement. “We have taken the necessary steps, so our patients continue to receive the care they trust us to provide.”

“All hospitals are open and accepting patients,” the statement said.

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MAGIC CHOCOLATE. The same chemical responsible for the ecstatic highs of love and sexual attraction, phenylethylamine, is also found in chocolate.

POMEGRANATE JUICE IS HEALTHIER THAN THE FRUIT ITSELF. Most of the fruit’s antioxidants are found in the inedible rind of the fruit–but the rind is typically used to create the juice. Pomegranate juice helps protect the heart and prevent arthritis and gingivitis. Let’s choose pure pomegranate juice with no added sugars or fillers (such as apple or pear juice).

BURNING. During the Middle Ages, if you were guilty of bestiality, you would be burned at the stake along with the other party to your crime.

LAWS ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR. The United States has more laws governing sexual behavior than all of the European nations combined. The only legally sanctioned sexual act in the U.S. is private, heterosexual intercourse between married adults.

PUBLIC HAIR. It was considered elegant for aristocratic ladies of the 16th century to let their pubic hair grow as long as possible so it could be pomaded and adorned with bows and ribbon.

MARATHON MATING. Somebody actually timed a rattlesnake mating session that lasted 22.75 hours.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)