Now, the article provides some numbers, and links to the NYSNA site which says 20,000 nurses are represented by them.
The article states that the hospital systems can't afford to give the nurses what amounts to be $4,500 compensation increase. Doing some simple multiplication brings us to $90,000,000. The hospital systems have reportedly spent $100,000,000 preparing for this strike by hiring temps and whatnot.
$100,000,000 is greater than $90,000,000, so we can see exactly what the hospital executives actually care about here.