NEW YORK (AP) — Nurses and two major hospital systems in New York City have reached a deal to end a nearly monthlong strike over staffing levels, workplace safety, health insurance and other issues.
The tentative agreement announced Monday by the nurses' union involves the Montefiore and Mount Sinai hospital systems. Nurses remain on strike at NewYork-Presbyterian.
The walkout began Jan. 12, prompting the hospitals to scramble to hire legions of temporary nurses to fill in during a demanding flu season.
The three-year proposal affects roughly 10,500 of the some 15,000 nurses on strike at some of the city’s biggest private, nonprofit hospitals.
The union said nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai hospitals will vote to ratify their contracts starting Monday. If the tentative deals are ratified, nurses will return to work Saturday.
“For four weeks, nearly 15,000 NYSNA members held the line in the cold and in the snow for safe patient care,” Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said in a statement. “Now, nurses at Montefiore and Mount Sinai systems are heading back to the bedside with our heads held high.”
The nurses union said the tentative agreements call for a 12% pay raise over three years, as well as maintain nurses' health benefits with no additional out-of-pocket costs.
In addition, the proposed pacts include new protections against workplace violence, including specific protections for transgender and immigrant nurses and patients, as well as provisions addressing artificial intelligence in hospitals, the union said.
A Montefiore spokesperson declined to comment other than to confirm its nurses would be voting through Wednesday.
Brendan Carr, Mount Sinai's CEO, said in a note to hospital staff that it would take time for the system to “rebuild the momentum” after a “long and difficult” negotiation.
“I commit to you that we will heal the organization together in the service of continuing to help people to live longer and better lives,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, NewYork-Presbyterian said it agreed over the weekend to a proposal from mediators that includes pay raises, preserves nurses’ pensions, maintains their health benefits and increases staffing levels. The union responded that no deal has been reached and the strike remains in effect.
Jennifer Lynch was among the union members picketing in front of NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan on Monday. She said staffing levels and job security were among the top sticking points in negotiations.
“It’s incredibly frustrating that other employers are willing to give fair contracts to their employees and ours has yet to do that,” she said.
Maria Tsoi, a NewYork-Presbyterian nurse, said her hospital treats as many as 300 patients in the emergency department at any given time -- far too many to handle at the current staffing levels.
“So what we’re asking is for more nurses,” Tsoi said. “That’s why we want the hospital to hire more nurses, so that we can better care for our patients.”
The affected hospitals have insisted their operations are running smoothly during the walkout, with organ transplants, cardiac surgeries and other complex procedures largely uninterrupted. Many of the medical centers, however, canceled scheduled surgeries, transferred some patients and discharged others ahead of the strike.
The striking nurses' priorities vary by hospital, but staffing has generally been a central issue. Nurses complained of being overworked, saying the hospitals held out for weeks on committing to more manageable patient loads. The union said Monday that the tentative agreements would increase staffing and otherwise address those concerns.
The union has also sought workplace security upgrades and restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence. Hospital staffers’ longstanding security concerns flared into public view when a gunman entered Mount Sinai in November and a man holed up in a Brooklyn hospital with a sharp object last month. Police killed both men.
The hospitals said the union’s demands were exorbitant. They say unionized nurses’ salaries already average $162,000 to $165,000 a year, not including benefits.
The nurses have countered that top hospital executives make millions of dollars a year.
Not every hospital in the three health care systems was affected by the strike, nor were any city-run public hospitals. Other private hospitals reached last-minute deals with the union.
Nurses staged a three-day strike in 2023 in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore systems. They ultimately inked contracts that, among other measures, raised pay 19% over three years.
Associated Press video journalists David R. Martin and Emily Wang Fujiyama contributed to this report.
Striking nurses walk a picket line outside NewYork Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Striking nurses walk a picket line outside NewYork Presbyterian Hospital, in New York, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran targeted the world’s busiest international airport Wednesday and attacked commercial ships as U.S. and Israeli strikes rocked Tehran, while the United Nations' most powerful body demanded a halt to the Islamic Republic’s strikes on its Gulf neighbors that threaten global oil supplies.
The latest attacks marked an escalation in Iran's campaign aimed at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end the war that started 12 days ago. But there were no signs that the conflict was letting up.
On Thursday, an Iranian attack sparked a major fire in a neighborhood in Bahrain’s Muharraq Island, home to the island kingdom’s international airport. Authorities urged people to stay in their homes and close windows and ventilation openings to avoid exposure to smoke. The airport has jet fuel tanks, and other tanks in the area serve the kingdom’s oil industry.
The first week of war with Iran cost the United States $11.3 billion, according to the Pentagon, which provided the estimate to Congress in a briefing earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. The military reported spending $5 billion on munitions alone in the war's first weekend.
Both sides have dug in, hoping to outlast the other as the conflict upends trade routes, chokes supplies of fuel and fertilizer coming out of the Gulf and threatens air traffic through one of the world’s most-traveled regions.
Iran has targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations and effectively stopped cargo traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes.
In response, the International Energy Agency agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil, the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the war's effects on energy markets. The U.S. planned to release 172 million barrels of oil next week from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat steep prices.
The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to approve a resolution demanding a halt to Iran’s “egregious attacks” on its Gulf neighbors.
Among the most recent attacks, four people were wounded after two Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, though flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said. Firefighters extinguished a blaze early Thursday at a luxury apartment tower in Dubai Creek Harbor after an Iranian drone strike.
At Oman’s Port of Salalah, crews battled a blaze at fuel storage tanks there, according to the Oman News Agency.
“The international community is resolute in rejecting these Iranian attacks against sovereign countries that are threatening the stability of the peoples, especially in a region of strategic importance to global economy, energy, security and security of global trade,” said Bahrain’s U.N. ambassador, Jamal Alrowaiei.
The 13-0 vote in the U.N.’s most powerful body reflects Iran’s isolated position as it has aggressively responded to Israeli and U.S. strikes. China and Russia — two Iranian allies — abstained from the vote.
Their U.N. ambassadors called the proposal “extremely unbalanced” in not mentioning the strikes against Tehran that began the war.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said it might leave the impression that Iran, “on its own volition and out of malice, conducted an unprovoked attack on Arab states.” Iranian U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the resolution “deliberately ignores the root causes of the current crisis.”
Meanwhile, more attacks in Gulf countries were reported.
Drones were launched toward the cities of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, while in the southern part of the country, an oil vessel flying the Australian flag was struck near Khor Al-Zubair Port, according to two Iraqi navy officials who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The official said 25 members of the crew were rescued. It was not immediately clear whether any others were missing.
On Thursday, sirens wailed and loud explosions were heard shortly after midnight in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. The Israeli military said it was responding with another “wide-scale wave of strikes” in Tehran.
The fallout across the Middle East widened as Israel also struck what it said were targets connected to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
An Israeli strike hit a car Thursday in Ramlet al-Bayda, a major seaside tourist area on the eastern side of Beirut where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering. Seven people were killed and 21 others were wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Blasts shook Beirut’s southern suburbs Wednesday, producing fires and plumes of smoke. Israel's military said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah firing dozens of rockets fired simultaneously across northern Israel. It marked some of the heaviest fighting between the two since the war began.
One rocket hit a house near the Israeli town of Karmiel, lightly injuring two people, according to Israeli rescue services.
At least 634 people have been killed in Lebanon since the latest fighting began, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Wednesday.
The U.N. refugee agency said at least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon.
Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 people dead. The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
The United States has pledged to keep the strait open and has led intense airstrikes targeting Iran's navy and the port city of Bandar Abbas. The U.S. military said Tuesday it destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the strait.
At least 12 incidents involving vessels around the strait have been confirmed since fighting began, according to two global trackers, and at least seven mariners have been killed.
A projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the strait, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand’s Marine Department.
This story has been corrected to fix a misspelling of the first name of Bahrain's U.N. ambassador.
Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, also contributed to this report, along with AP journalists around the world.
A man, left, carries the body of his son, Kassem Younis, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral procession in the southern village of Chehabiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Flames rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Children and adults play on swings on the beach as oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A man holds a picture of late Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh beside his coffin as mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A mourner holds a poster depicting Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, as supreme leader, during the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from a building following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and some civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji, File)
Rescue workers gather at the site where Israeli airstrikes hit apartments in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People take shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
