Resident physicians walked off the job Monday morning at Elmhurst Hospital, preparing to go on a five-day strike.

They are demanding Mount Sinai, who runs their training program and signs their checks, to pay them the same wages as their counterparts in Manhattan.

About 170 residents began the strike at 7 a.m. after no agreement was made Sunday night.

The doctors say they are paid $7,000 less each year than the nonunionized residents at Mount Sinai's main campus in Manhattan, according to a release from the union CIRSEIU.

Elmhurst is a public hospital, but the nearly 200 resident physicians are part of a training program run by Mount Sinai.

Some residents and local officials gathered Sunday at Frank D. O’Connor Playground in Queens for a “picket party,” hosted by the union CIRSEIU.

“Elmhurst Hospital was the epicenter of the epicenter at the height of the pandemic,” Queens Sen. Jessica Ramos said. “We owe these doctors the best possible benefit and wage package so that they can take care of their families so they continue taking care of ours.”

According to Mount Sinai, it has met with the union more than a dozen times and made increasingly generous proposals.

"We are committed to 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," a Mount Sinai spokesperson said in a statement Saturday. "We are working closely with partners at Elmhurst Hospital on contingency plans to ensure the same quality and level of care and services that the local community expects and deserves are not affected by the strike."

Tanathun Kajornsakchai, one of the resident physicians at Elmhurst Hospital, said the strike is significant because a lot of the hospitals throughout New York City have been going through similar negotiations, and the pandemic has highlighted that their employers “don’t treat us with respect.”

“They don’t give us the pay that we deserve, after the COVID pandemic and I was there during the pandemic at the epicenter of the whole world at one point. We deserve recognition,” he said.

This is the second time this month residents at Elmhurst Hospital have threatened to strike.

Joya Dupre, an internal medicine resident at Elmhurst Hospital, said they have been in negotiations since July 2022 for their contracts with Mount Sinai, adding that they have been trying to come up with a fair proposal with them.

“We want to be treated as equals. Our counterparts at Mount Sinai have received a raise that they definitely deserved and we definitely deserve it as well.”