2026 Nurse Strikes: Complete List of Active and Planned Strikes
Image: NJ.com
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 2026.
Current Nurse Strikes:
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Kaiser Permanente Hospitals (CA, HI): Approximately 31,000 nurses and healthcare professionals across California and Hawaii began a strike on January 26 from Los Angeles to San Diego and Oakland to Honolulu. The dispute centers on safe staffing, wages, and stalled contract negotiations, including unresolved unfair labor practice charges. If carried out, the strike could impact dozens of hospitals and hundreds of clinics, making it one of the largest potential healthcare labor actions of the year.
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New York‑Presbyterian/Columbia, Montefiore, and Mount Sinai (New York): Nearly 15,000 NYSNA nurses at major New York City hospitals, including Mount Sinai’s campuses, Montefiore in the Bronx, and NewYork‑Presbyterian/Columbia, began a strike on January 12, 2026, and are now well into their second week on the picket lines. This action is widely regarded as the largest nurses’ walkout in New York City history, both for the number of nurses involved and the scale of major hospitals.
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Henry Ford Genesys Hospital (Grand Blanc, MI): Hundreds of nurses at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, MI remain on strike with no agreement reached. The hospital is imposing wage and benefits increases without union approval, while negotiations are still stalled over staffing ratios and pay. Both sides say talks will continue, but the strike is ongoing as of January 29, 2026.
Pending Nurse Strikes:
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Seattle Children's (Washington): Nurses voted overwhelmingly on December 22, 2025, to authorize a strike after months of contract negotiations over staffing, workplace safety, and respect on the job. This authorization does not mean a strike is underway yet, but it gives their union the legal ability to call a walkout with the required notice if talks break down.
- Northern Maine Medical Center (Fort Kent, Maine) : voted on September 4, 2025, to authorize strikes amid ongoing contract negotiations. While no specific strike dates are set yet, the votes allow union leaders to call a strike if progress is not made on issues like staffing, wages, and working conditions in the coming weeks.
- St. Luke’s Hospital (MA): Nurses held an informational picket on September 17 to bring attention to staffing and wage concerns as contract negotiations drag on.
- Howard Brown Health (IL): Nurses have voted to authorize a strike, citing issues with pay, benefits, staffing, and patient safety. No walkout has been called yet.
- Oregon Health & Science University (OR): Two separate groups at OHSU are relevant: ONA‑represented nurses who previously authorized an open‑ended strike in 2023 and held a strike authorization vote in September 2025, and a newer group of 1,700 research workers (AFSCME) now preparing a separate strike authorization vote in January 2026.
Recently Passed Nursing Strikes:
- Legacy Emanuel, Legacy Good Samaritan and Randall Children's (Oregon): Advanced practice providers at Legacy Health, including nurse practitioners and physician associates, recently held a strike at Legacy Emanuel, Legacy Good Samaritan, Randall Children’s and other Legacy sites after more than 20 months of bargaining and mediation. The strike ended on December 30, 2025, and APPs are now back at work while they vote on a tentative contract, with a 90‑day cooling‑off period in which another strike cannot occur.
- Pittsburgh. Magee Women’s Hospital (Pennsylvania): have recently made headlines by voting to unionize, marking one of the largest nurse labor actions in Pennsylvania in a decade. While advanced practitioners prepare for their own upcoming vote, the unionization effort reflects widespread calls for better staffing, workplace conditions, and patient safety. There is no active strike at the hospital; care continues uninterrupted as negotiations begin for improved standards.
- Sharp HealthCare (San Diego, CA): About 5,700–5,800 Sharp HealthCare nurses and health care professionals launched a three‑day strike Wednesday morning, November 26, with picket lines at Sharp Metro, Sharp Grossmont, and Sharp Chula Vista. The action ran from 7 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, through 7 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, covering Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
- University Medical Center New Orleans (Louisiana): Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans began a three-day strike on November 11, 2025, to address staff retention concerns and push for their first union contract with LCMC Health. Represented by NNOC/NNU, the nurses are demanding competitive wages, benefits, and better working conditions to keep experienced, community-connected nurses in the hospital. Negotiations are ongoing, and union leaders emphasize the strike’s goal is to secure lasting improvements for workforce stability and patient care.
- Cooley Dickinson Hospital (Massachusetts ): Nurse voted overwhelmingly to authorize a one-day strike, demanding safer staffing, competitive wages, and affordable health insurance. A community forum is set for November 17 to build public support and address concerns before any strike is called.
- MercyHealth East Clinic (Janesville, Wisconsin): The strike at MercyHealth East Clinic in Janesville, Wisconsin has ended. Over 100 nurses and other healthcare workers represented by UAW Local 95 ratified a new contract after several months on strike that began in July 2025. The new labor agreement includes improvements in security and wages, but union leaders say not all demands—particularly on health insurance premiums—were met. Employees have returned to work, with the union planning continued advocacy on remaining issues.
- Tenet Healthcare hospitals in California: The one-day strike by approximately 3,100 nurses at six Tenet Healthcare hospitals in California took place on October 30, 2025, and is now over. Nurses walked out to protest chronic understaffing, missed breaks, and retention issues. While hospital operations continued with replacement staff during the strike, contract negotiations between Tenet and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United remain unfinished, with no agreement reached yet. Both sides say negotiations are ongoing, but there are no additional strikes scheduled at this time.
- USC Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center (Los Angeles, California): About 1,800 nurses represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) have announced plans for a one-day strike on October 30, 2025. The walkout will begin at 7 a.m. Thursday and run through 6:59 a.m. Friday. Nurses are demanding safer staffing levels, guaranteed rest breaks, and stronger patient safety protections. Union representatives report more than 10,000 missed meal breaks and 4,000 missed rest periods in the past year, citing exhaustion and unsafe workloads. Nurses at both facilities have been in contract negotiations since May 2025 and say management has failed to address ongoing staffing shortages and poor working conditions.
- VNA of Cape Cod Healthcare (Massachusetts): Dozens of home health and hospice nurses with the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) began a three-day strike on October 22, 2025, which ended on October 24. Nurses report struggling with unsafe caseloads, high turnover, and pay inequities, arguing that stagnant compensation has made it difficult to recruit and retain staff. The union’s goal is to secure competitive wages and restore safe nurse-to-patient ratios to maintain quality care for home health patients.
- UC San Diego Health (California): recent labor actions involving service and technical workers (including patient care roles). In July 2025, AFSCME members staged a 24-hour strike over layoffs, affecting nursing assistants and senior nurse aides. In August, union members—including nurses—held a statewide day of action urging management to resolve ongoing contract negotiations and address concerns about staffing, job security, and workplace safety. Contract talks are active and tensions remain high, though no new mass strike is currently scheduled.
- Twin Cities and Duluth Hospitals (Minnesota): Nurses at several hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth areas have held informational pickets and are bargaining for new contracts. Their contracts have expired, and if negotiations do not progress, a strike could be called in the coming months.
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West Anaheim Medical Center (California): Nurses are set to hold a one-day strike on August 12, 2025, to protest management’s refusal to address persistent nurse turnover and concerns over patient safety and staffing levels. The strike, organized by the California Nurses Association, aims to pressure hospital leadership to invest in retaining experienced staff, adhere to legal nurse-to-patient ratios, and ensure safer working conditions for both patients and nurses. Contract negotiations have stalled after months of talks, with management declaring an impasse despite nurses’ calls for improved workplace standards.
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Butler Hospital (Rhode Island): The strike at Butler Hospital ended August 18, 2025 . On July 29–30, striking union members voted overwhelmingly (98%) to reject the hospital management’s “last, best, and final” contract offer, citing concerns over low wage proposals for support staff, increased healthcare deductibles, and other working conditions. The hospital has responded by closing dozens of beds, posting openings for permanent replacements, and freezing wages and healthcare benefits for striking staff. Negotiations are at a standstill as workers seek improved safety, higher pay, and better returning rights for those out on workers’ comp.
Reasons Nurses Strike
Nursess 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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