Just a week after nurses from two private hospitals went on strike, city nurses from 11 public hospitals rallied Wednesday in Lower Manhattan, demanding to be taken seriously ahead of expiring contracts.

“We are nurses! We are all nurses, we demand healthcare equity for our patients and communties. We demand pay equity for the hardworking Health + Hospitals and mayoral nurses,” said Nancy Hagans, a union official with the New York State Nursing Association who rallied outside of the Health + Hospitals corporate headquarters.

Current contracts for public nurses expire on March 2. Their demands for better staffing are similar to what private sector nurses were asking for. But among the top concerns is equal pay, especially when compared to what nurses in private hospitals earn.

“Private nurses, prior to their contract that they were just able to attain, made $14,000 more on base salaries. With this new contract it is about $19,500,” said Sonia Lawrence, a nurse at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.

Lawrence, who’s been a nurse for 28 years, said she believes the morale among city nurses is low. She said this weighs heavily on workers, especially since by law they cannot go on strike like those in the private sector.

“if we had that in our arsenal, they would treat us better. If we could walk off the job like our fellow nurses did last week, we wouldn’t be in this fight today,” said Lawrence.

In a statement, a spokesperson with NYC Health + Hospitals said in part “We look forward to negotiating a new contract with NYSNA when the current one expires in March and welcome new opportunities to strengthen our partnership.”

Lawrence believes if nurses’ demands are not met, the public health system, which she said is already losing nurses, will only get worse.

“I think that is the foundation for a massive exodus from H+H to the private hospitals, and we cannot have a city without a public health system,” said Lawrence.