Yes, nurses are on strike at multiple hospitals across the United States in 2025. Labor disputes have been recorded at dozens of healthcare facilities this year, with walkouts ranging from one-day demonstrations to open-ended strikes lasting weeks or even months. The activity spans California, Oregon, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Louisiana, and Rhode Island, among other states.
Where Nurses Are Striking in 2025
Becker’s Hospital Review has tracked 38 healthcare strikes so far in 2025, and nursing walkouts make up a significant share. Some of the most notable actions include:
- Portland, Oregon: Members of the Oregon Nurses Association began an open-ended strike in December at Legacy Emanuel and Legacy Good Samaritan medical centers.
- Grand Blanc, Michigan: Nurses at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital have been on strike for over six months, one of the longest active nursing strikes in the country.
- California (six hospitals): Registered nurses walked out on October 30 at six Tenet Healthcare hospitals: San Ramon Medical Center, Doctors Hospital of Manteca, Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, and Hi-Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree.
- New Orleans, Louisiana: Nurses at University Medical Center New Orleans, represented by National Nurses United, held a three-day strike in November.
- Houlton, Maine: Maine State Nurses Association members staged a two-day strike in November at Houlton Regional Hospital.
- Deer River, Minnesota: SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa members began an open-ended strike at a facility there.
- San Diego, California: United Nurses Associations of California members concluded a three-day strike at Sharp HealthCare in late November.
- Providence, Rhode Island: Workers at Butler Hospital ratified a new contract after what became Rhode Island’s longest hospital strike on record.
Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers across multiple states also concluded a planned five-day strike in October, though that action involved a broader coalition of healthcare employees beyond just nurses.
Why Nurses Walk Out
The common thread in nearly every 2025 strike is staffing. Nurses say they’re being asked to care for too many patients at once, which compromises safety for both patients and staff. At the six Tenet hospitals in California, for instance, striking nurses specifically demanded guaranteed meal and rest break coverage, better recruitment and retention of experienced nurses, lift teams to help move patients, and safe staffing levels at all times.
These aren’t new complaints. A 2022 survey by the American Nurses Foundation found that 52% of nurses were considering leaving their current position, citing insufficient staffing, the toll on their own health, and an inability to deliver quality care. That same year, the total supply of registered nurses in the U.S. dropped by more than 100,000 in a single year, the largest decline observed in four decades. A significant portion of those leaving were under 35 and worked in hospitals.
California is the only state with legally mandated nurse-to-patient ratios. The law requires one nurse for every five patients in medical/surgical units, one nurse for every three patients in step-down units, and one nurse for every four patients in telemetry and specialty care. Nurses in other states often push for similar protections through contract negotiations, and when hospitals resist, strikes become the leverage point.
How Nursing Strikes Are Organized
Nursing strikes don’t happen overnight. Federal law requires unions to give at least 10 days’ written notice to both the hospital and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service before any strike or picketing at a healthcare facility. This cooling-off period is designed to give hospitals time to arrange replacement staff and transfer vulnerable patients if needed.
Most strikes follow months or years of contract negotiations that have stalled. Unions typically authorize a strike vote among their members, and if the vote passes, they set a strike date. Some walkouts are planned as short, one-day demonstrations meant to apply pressure. Others, like the one at Henry Ford Genesys in Michigan, become open-ended when neither side budges.
National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country, represents more than 225,000 members and has been behind several of the major actions in 2025. The California Nurses Association, an NNU affiliate, organized the Tenet hospital strikes and other California walkouts.
What Happens to Patients During a Strike
Hospitals typically hire temporary replacement nurses, often travel nurses, to cover shifts during a walkout. This comes at a steep cost. During a New York City nursing strike, hospitals paid travel nurses up to $9,000 per week for five 12-hour shifts, nearly three times the normal salary for nurses in the area. Those expenses strain hospital budgets that are already tight, which is part of the economic pressure a strike creates.
The question patients most want answered is whether strikes put them at risk. A systematic review published in the National Institutes of Health examined 17 studies covering more than 768,000 hospital admissions during strike periods. The pooled data found no statistically significant difference in patient mortality during strikes compared to normal operations. The type of profession on strike, the duration of the walkout, and whether multiple facilities were involved didn’t change that finding. None of the studies found a significant increase in population-level mortality tied to strike action.
One individual study within that review did report an 18.3% increase in in-hospital mortality during nurses’ strikes after controlling for hospital-specific differences, but this result was not consistent across the broader body of research. The general pattern suggests that the combination of advance notice requirements, patient transfers, and replacement staffing helps maintain safety during most walkouts.
What Strikers Want Long Term
While wages are part of every contract negotiation, the 2025 strikes are largely centered on working conditions. Nurses argue that chronic understaffing creates a cycle: overworked nurses burn out and leave, which worsens the shortage for those who stay, which drives more departures. Hospital-employed nurses currently report the lowest job satisfaction of any nursing setting, and they have the fewest nurses planning to retire in the next five years, suggesting the turnover is driven by dissatisfaction rather than age.
The specific demands vary by hospital but tend to cluster around enforceable staffing ratios, mandatory rest breaks, better pay to attract and retain experienced nurses, and workplace safety measures like dedicated teams for physically demanding tasks such as lifting patients. In states without California-style ratio laws, unions try to write these protections directly into their contracts, making each negotiation a proxy fight over staffing standards.
Some strikes resolve quickly. The Rhode Island walkout at Butler Hospital ended with a four-year contract. Others drag on for months. The trajectory of each dispute depends on how far apart the two sides are, how much financial pressure the strike creates, and whether public attention shifts the balance.