Syosset, Plainview and Huntington nurses reach tentative deal with Northwell hospitals

Northwell Health and the union representing nurses at its Plainview, Syosset and Huntington hospitals have reached tentative agreements on new contracts, averting potential strikes that were scheduled to begin Monday, the nurses union and Northwell officials said Saturday morning.

Nancy Hagans, the president of New York State Nurses Association, said at a Zoom news conference on Saturday morning: "Congratulations to NYSNA nurses at Northwell Huntington, Plainview and Syosset. The agreement improves safe staffing for patients and nurses, maintains benefits for nurses and includes respectful wage increases."

Nurses at Northwell’s hospitals will now vote on whether to ratify the proposed contract. Under the tentative agreement, Long Island-based union nurses would get roughly 5% annual raises over the term of the three-year contract, according to a union spokeswoman.

"Northwell Health is pleased to have reached tentative agreements with NYSNA at Huntington, Plainview and Syosset hospitals. From the start of negotiations, our goal has been to reach a fair contract that supports our valued nurses and upholds the high standard of care our patients and community trust," Northwell said in a Saturday morning email to Newsday.

"This agreement reaffirms our commitment of enabling a supportive work environment and provides our nurses with competitive compensation and benefits," the health system's email said.

The New Hyde Park-based health system, the largest private employer in the state, declined to provide details on contract specifics pending the ratification vote.

Northwell employs more than 270 registered nurses at its Plainview facility, over 670 nurses at Huntington Hospital and 174 nurses in Syosset, according to September 2025 figures provided by the health system.

The nurses and union officials had said a key sticking point in negotiations was what they called inadequate staffing levels and nurse-to-patient ratios, which they said had created unsustainable workloads and made it difficult to recruit and retain staff.

Health care labor experts said strikes by nurses and other health care workers were rare. But there have been upticks in labor activity and tensions between staff and health care management in the wake of the pandemic, when longtime staffing shortages were made worse by industry burnout, said John August, director of health care labor relations at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

"There have not been a tremendous number of strikes among health care workers from about 2000 to about 2023," August said. For decades, the health care industry has wrestled with staffing issues, which has led to higher workloads for existing nurses. 

"Trying to replace them amid the systemic shortage of nurses that has been around for many years has led to a lot of conflict in hospitals around the country," he said.