2025 Nurse Strikes: Complete List of Active and Planned Strikes
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Recent years have shown a significant rise in nursing strikes, with more and more nurses utilizing their unionizations to fight for better pay and safer working conditions for both patients and staff.
Here's where the nursing strikes are currently standing in 2025.
Current, pending, and past strikes
Current:
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University of California System Strike: A one-day strike is occurring today, April 1, 2025, involving over 20,000 healthcare, research, and technical professionals across the UC system. Organized by the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), this strike addresses issues such as staffing shortages, unfair labor practices, and increased healthcare costs without negotiation. The action affects all UC campuses and medical centers statewide
Pending Strikes:
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CRONA Nurses Strike: The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) has announced a strike starting April 25, 2025. Over 5,000 nurses at Stanford and Packard hospitals will participate due to unresolved contract negotiations after 13 weeks of bargaining.
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Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Plymouth: 420 registered nurses gave official notice to BID administration that they will be holding a vote to authorize a three-day strike and conducting an informational picket outside the Plymouth Public Library on Thursday, March 20th. Both events culminate a month’s long effort to convince BID management of the need for significant improvements in staffing, along with other provisions in a new union contract to allow the facility to recruit and retain the staff needed to provide safer patient care.
(Update) As of April 1, 2025, no strike has been scheduled by the registered nurses at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, despite their overwhelming vote on March 20 to authorize a potential three-day strike. The nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), are still engaged in contract negotiations with hospital management. Their current contract expired on March 31, but discussions continue regarding key issues such as staffing levels, wages, and health insurance provisions.
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Geisinger Health System’s Luzerne County: Previously from February 17 to February 21, 2025, involved approximately 800 nurses from three Luzerne County facilities in Pennsylvania. The five-day strike was organized by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania to address concerns over understaffing, low pay, affordable healthcare, and workplace safety. Affected facilities included Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre, and Geisinger Healthplex CenterPoint. Negotiations between the union and Geisinger management resumed on February 19, during the strike. Although nurses returned to work on February 22.
(Update) As of April 1, 2025, no specific dates have been announced for a second strike by unionized nurses at Geisinger Health System facilities in Luzerne County. However, tensions remain high following the nurses' overwhelming vote on March 11 to authorize another strike "if necessary." The nurses, represented by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, are pushing for improvements in staffing, pay, workplace safety, and healthcare costs—issues that were central to their previous five-day strike in February.
Recently Passed Strikes:
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Santa Clara County Health Workers: Nearly 200 clinical lab scientists, microbiologists, and other health workers in Santa Clara County striked March 24 through March 28. This action impacts facilities such as Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital. The strike stems from disputes over labor contract terms and staffing policies
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University of California healthcare: Approximately 20,000 University of California healthcare, research, and technical employees began a three-day strike on February 26, 2025, across multiple UC campuses and medical centers. The strike, organized by UPTE-CWA Local 9119, aims to address issues such as unfair labor practices, inadequate staffing, and demands for higher wages, while UC denies claims of a staffing crisis and states it has offered improved compensation.
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Providence Health & Services: After 46 days on the picket line and more than a year of negotiations, nearly 5,000 frontline nurses represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) have secured a historic win. All eight registered nurse bargaining units at Providence hospitals overwhelmingly ratified new contracts, ending the strike and establishing new standards for wages, staffing, and patient safety in one of Oregon's largest healthcare systems.
In a significant move that could reshape labor dynamics in Oregon, the state Senate has passed a bill allowing striking workers to receive unemployment benefits. This legislation marks a notable shift in how the state approaches labor disputes and could have far-reaching implications for nurses and healthcare workers who may engage in strikes.
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University Medical Center (UMC): Experienced its second strike by nurses on February 5-6, 2025. The two-day strike in New Orleans, organized by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), involved more than 600 nurses advocating for improved staffing levels and workplace safety measures. UMC management implemented a three-day lockout of striking nurses, extending through Super Bowl weekend but returned to work after.
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Newton-Wellesley Hospital (MA) - December 2024: A tentative contract agreement was reached following an informational picket and strike authorization vote. Key provisions include a 15.5% wage increase with retroactive pay to April 2024, enhanced workplace violence policies with post-crisis support, and expanded bargaining rights for off-site ambulatory nurses and nurse practitioners. The agreement, effective through March 31, 2027, aims to improve recruitment, retention, and patient care quality.
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St. Joseph Medical Center (Tacoma, WA) - December 2024: A new contract was overwhelmingly approved that includes the highest wages for nurses in Pierce County, equal pay for international nurses based on experience, and robust workplace safety measures like weapon detectors and locked units. Staffing improvements include break nurses, a weekend-only shift, and fair call shift allocation. The agreement was reached after extensive negotiations and reflects significant progress in equity, safety, and working conditions.
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Lower Bucks Hospital (Bristol, PA) - December 2024: A new three-year labor contract with 83% support after 15 months of negotiations was approved. Key provisions include new nursing positions to improve staffing, protections against layoffs, and increased wages averaging 14% over three years, with additional pay based on experience. The agreement also enhances on-call pay, differentials, and holiday hours, aiming to address retention and recognize the contributions of frontline caregivers while prioritizing patient care.
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University of Illinois Health - November 2024: The union says they reached an agreement with the administration. The terms of the 4-year contract have not been disclosed.
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Maui Health, Kaiser - November 2024: Negotiations between UNHCEH and Maui Health, representing over 900 healthcare workers, stalled over proposed staffing ratios, leading the union to initiate a three-day strike on November 4, 2024. The strike affected Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital, and Lanai Community Hospital. UNHCEH seeks staffing ratios similar to those agreed upon by Kaiser Permanente in California, which Maui Health management has rejected.
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University Medical Center (UMC: in New Orleans held a one-day strike on October 25, 2024. This decision came after months of unsuccessful contract negotiations between the nurses' union and hospital management, with patient safety concerns at the forefront of the dispute. They were locked out of the hospital on October 26, 2024, and have not reached an agreement.
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Hawaii Nurses’ Association (HNA): Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, Honolulu, Hawaii - October 2024: After over a year of negotiations, a new three-year contract has been finalized.
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Providence Joint Strike: Providence Medford, Providence Hood River, Providence Newberg, Providence Willamette Falls, Providence St. Vincent, and Providence Milwaukie, Oregon. Ended
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Loretto Hospital (Chicago, IL)
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McLaren Lapeer Regional Hospital (Lapeer, MI)
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Providence Portland Medical Center (Portland, OR)
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Marin Health Medical Center (Greenbrae, CA)
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Mount Sinai Health, Montefiore Health System, and Wyckoff Hospital (New York, NY)
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National Nurses United (NNU) National Day of Action (nationwide)
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Ascension Seton Medical Center (Austin, TX)
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Kaiser Permanente (California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington D.C.)
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Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick, NJ)
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Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey (Marina del Rey, California)
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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute-Merrimack Valley (Boston, Massachusetts)
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Ascension Saint Joseph-Joliet (Joliet, Illinois)
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St. Catherine of Siena Hospital (Smithtown, New York)
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Sutter Center for Psychiatry (Sacramento, CA)
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MyMichigan Medical Center Sault (Sault Ste. Marie, MI)
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Sacred Heart Home Care Services (Springfield, OH)
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St. Joseph Hospital (St. Juliet, MI)
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University of Chicago Medicine (Chicago, IL)
Why are nurses striking?
Nurses go on strike for many systemic reasons including, but not limited to, inadequate pay, unsafe working conditions, and unsafe staffing ratios. Often, with the assistance of their union, nurses work to negotiate contracts with their employers. Oftentimes, nurses are able to negotiate a better contract without the need to go on strike.
However, sometimes negotiations reach a standstill, with neither party reaching an agreement. When this happens, nurses protest by refusing to go to work until agreeable terms are met.
In particular, safer nurse-to-patient staffing ratios have been at the forefront of concerns that have driven recent nursing strike authorizations across the country.
According to the 2023 State of Nursing Report conducted by Nurse.org, 91% of nurses believe the nursing shortage is getting worse and that burnout, poor working conditions, and inadequate pay are the primary causes. In addition, 79% of nurses said their units are inadequately staffed and 71% said that improving staffing ratios would have the greatest impact on the nursing shortage.
Nurses are becoming more vocal about these feelings and experiences and are choosing to take action through striking.
🤔 Nurses, do you have information on current, planned, or recent strikes? Share your thoughts in the discussion forum below, or email info@nurse.org.
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