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By Kenny Stancil

More than 7,000 unionized nurses at two of New York City’s largest hospitals began a strike on Monday morning “for fair contracts that improve patient care.”

“Nurses don’t want to strike,” the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said late Sunday in a statement. “Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients.”

More than 3,600 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital in Harlem and roughly 3,500 of their counterparts at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx walked off the job on Monday at 6:00 am ET after management declined to approve a new contract with increased staffing levels, improved safety measures, and better pay and healthcare benefits.

The hospitals’ overnight intransigence came after negotiations at several other New York City hospitals yielded tentative agreements prior to the strike start date.