On Monday morning, with temperatures below freezing, New York City nurses began the fourth week of the largest nursing strike in the city’s history, which has seen some fifteen thousand nurses across multiple Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian facilities walk off the job.

Hundreds of nurses kicked off the week by gathering near Grand Central Terminal and marching to Governor Kathy Hochul’s nearby office, aiming pressure at a state leader who has repeatedly extended an executive order allowing hospitals to more easily hire temporary and out-of-state replacement staff (referred to in union parlance as “scabs”), blunting the leverage of the work stoppage. Nurses’ demand is specific: Hochul should not extend the executive order again, removing a measure that has made it easier for hospital systems to staff around the strike. The latest extension expires today.

The striking nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), walked off the job at private hospitals across New York City on January 12. The strike does not include all NYSNA members statewide, nor nurses at public hospitals like those in the NYC Health + Hospitals system, who work under separate contracts.