NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied with nurses Tuesday in Manhattan during the ninth day of the largest strike of its kind that the city has seen in decades.
The democratic socialists, speaking to a boisterous crowd of nurses in front of Mount Sinai West on the Upper West Side, called on hospital executives to return to the negotiating table to resolve the contract impasse that prompted some 15,000 nurses to walk off the job last week.
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Members of the New York State Nurses Association union picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Members of the New York State Nurses Association union picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Members of the New York State Nurses Association union listen to Mayor Zohran Mamdani speak during.a picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), speak in front of members of the New York State Nurses Association union during a picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), speak in front of members of the New York State Nurses Association union during a picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
“The people of this country are sick and tired of the greed in this health care industry," said Sanders, the long-serving Vermont senator and a native of Brooklyn, as he rattled off the multimillion-dollar salaries of the CEOs of the three hospital systems affected by the strike.
“Now is your time of need, when we can assure that this is a city you don't just work in, but a city you can also live in," Mamdani added.
The nurses union says it has held one bargaining session with each of the three hospital systems impacted — Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian — since the strike began on Jan. 12.
But the sides say those hourslong meetings have ended with little progress, and there are no plans so far this week to resume talks.
“They offered us nothing. It was all performative,” said Jonathan Hunter, a registered nurse at Mount Sinai and a member of the negotiating team.
The New York State Nurses Association met Sunday evening with officials from Montefiore after holding negotiations Friday with Mount Sinai administrators and Thursday with NewYork-Presbyterian officials.
Hospital administrators say they’ll follow the lead of contract mediators on when to meet again with their union counterparts. Each affected hospital is negotiating with the union independently.
The hospitals say the union is proposing pay raises that amount to a 25% salary increase over three years. They maintain the request is unreasonable, as their nurses are already among the highest paid in the city.
“NYSNA’s demands ignore the economic realities of healthcare in New York City and the country,” NewYork-Presbyterian said in a statement Tuesday, citing federal cuts to Medicaid, as well as rising overall costs.
Outside Mount Sinai West on Tuesday morning, nurses and their supporters marched in the frigid cold, chanting “one day longer, one day stronger” as a caravan of New York City taxi drivers honked their horns in support.
Nicole Rodriguez, a nurse at Mount Sinai West, said her biggest concern in the contract dispute is preserving her health care benefits.
She said she has an autoimmune disease that causes her to get sick often and pass along illnesses to her child.
“If my son is not well, I’m not well, and I can’t be at the bedside and be the nurse I want to be,” she said. “I hope management opens their eyes to how much support we have out here, and they see that they need to reach into their pockets and give the nurses their health care.”
The union says the hospitals are seeking to reduce nurses benefits but the hospitals say they’ve proposed maintaining their current employer-funded benefits, which they say exceed what most private employees receive.
The hospitals, meanwhile, say their medical operations are running normally despite the walkout. They have brought on thousands of temporary nurses to fill shifts and say they’ve made financial commitments to extend their employment.
“Everyone who has come to work — including many who have gone above and beyond to support the operational response — is helping to save lives," Brendan Carr, CEO of Mount Sinai, said in a statement to staff Monday.
Associated Press reporter Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this story.
Members of the New York State Nurses Association union picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Members of the New York State Nurses Association union picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Members of the New York State Nurses Association union listen to Mayor Zohran Mamdani speak during.a picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), speak in front of members of the New York State Nurses Association union during a picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), speak in front of members of the New York State Nurses Association union during a picket outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Iran fired missiles at Israel and some Gulf nations while explosions could be heard around Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, as the United States prepared to further reinforce its already significant military forces in the Middle East.
As the war that began Feb. 28 was to enter its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait warned about incoming missile fire, although it was unclear if anything was struck. Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing.
Oil prices surged while Asian financial markets rose moderately during cautious trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.
U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks.
The largest American aircraft carrier in service sailed out of Split, in Croatia and “remains poised for full mission tasking in support of national objectives in any area of operation,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet announced.
It was unclear where it was going. The USS Abraham Lincoln remains in the Arabian Sea and the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier departed Norfolk on Wednesday to head to the Mideast.
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Oil prices continued to surge on worries of a prolonged Iran war but the Asian markets that were open Friday rose moderately in cautious trading, while others were closed for the Good Friday holidays.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.
The U.S. only relies on the Persian Gulf for a fraction of the oil it imports, but oil is a commodity and prices are set in a global market.
The situation is very different in Asia. Japan, for example, relies on access to the Strait of Hormuz for much of the nation’s oil import needs and would need to rely on alternative routes. But some analysts say Japan and oher nations are counting on an agreement with Iran to allow transports.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% in Friday morning trading to 52,938.62. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.1% to 5,344.41. The Shanghai Composite sank 0.5% to 3,899.57. Trading was closed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India.
Wall Street, where trading is closed Friday, finished its first winning week since the start of the Iran war, although trading started out with a decline driven by a surge in oil prices.
Bangladesh is curtailing office hours and enforcing early closure of malls and shops beginning Friday to handle its energy crisis related to the war.
The country’s cabinet ordered 30% spending cuts for fuel and power at government offices, suspended some staff training and stopped purchases of new vehicles, ships and aircraft. Decorative lighting will not be allowed for celebrations.
Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million people, is seeking alternative fuel sources and $2.5 billion in external financing for imports, which account for 95% of its fuel.
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Friday urged motorists getting away for a long weekend during the Easter holiday to fill up in cities because most of the nation’s fuel shortages are in rural areas.
Among 2,400 gas stations in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 182 had run out of diesel by Friday.
In Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, 76 gas stations were out of diesel. In the remaining states ranked by the most populous first, Queensland had 75 stations without diesel, Western Australia had 37, South Australia had 28 and in Tasmania there were seven.
“For those Australians planning a road trip this weekend, given our shortages are predominantly in rural and regional Australia, it makes sense to fill up in the city to help the country if you can,” Bowen said in Sydney.
The government, which blamed regional shortages on panic buying and distribution problems, is concentrating on delivering fuel to farmers for planting crops.
Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A newly constructed bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A newly constructed bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A man with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon sits on a bed at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
President Donald Trump arrives from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
