More than 150 doctors on strike at hospital that was once called NYC's pandemic epicenter

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Medical professionals at a New York hospital are striking in protest of low pay.

Over 150 resident physicians at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, New York, initiated the labor strike against Mount Sinai Hospital on Monday. 

"[Mount Sinai is] working towards an equitable and reasonable resolution that is in the best interest for both our residents at Elmhurst as well as for the Mount Sinai Health System," the employer wrote in a statement on the strike.

The Queens-based doctors say that though they are employed by Mount Sinai Hospital, they make less than their Manhattan-based counterparts.

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A person walks past Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York City. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

"[Mount Sinai] refuses to pay us the same as our coworkers doing the exact same job at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan," Dr. Joya Dupre, a second-year internal medicine resident at Elmhurst, said in a union statement. 

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A medical worker walks by an entrance to Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

She added, "It feels, fundamentally, like Mount Sinai is saying that this community does not matter. Like we as Elmhurst residents do not matter, as largely immigrant, union doctors."

The doctors, organized under the Committee of Interns and Residents local of the Service Employees International Union, are claiming to be the first in their line of work to strike in New York City since 1990.

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The ongoing strike is expected to last approximately five days.

People leave Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York City. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Doctors at Mount Sinai Morningside/West in Manhattan are also preparing to strike over pay, according to the union.

Elmhurst Hospital Center was a cornerstone facility of New York City's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was once believed to be the pandemic's epicenter for treatment across the city.