NEW YORK Mayor Zohran Mamdani and US Senator Bernie Sanders have rallied with nurses in Manhattan, during the ninth day of the largest strike of its kind that the city has seen in decades.

Speaking to a boisterous crowd of nurses in front of Mount Sinai West hospital on Tuesday, the two left-wing politicians called on hospital executives to return to the negotiating table to resolve the contract impasse that prompted some 15,000 nurses to strike last week.

“The people of this country are sick and tired of the greed in this healthcare industry,” Mr Sanders said, as he rattled off the multimillion-dollar salaries of the chief executives of the three hospital organisations affected by the strike.

Mr Mamdani added: “Now is your time of need, when we can assure that this is a city you don’t just work in but a city you can also live in.”

The nurses’ union says it had held one unsuccessful bargaining session with each of the three hospital organisations, Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian, since the strike began on January 12.

There are no plans to resume the talks, according to the union.

“They offered us nothing. It was all performative,” said Mount Sinai registered nurse Jonathan Hunter, a member of the negotiating team.

The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) met officials from Montefiore on Sunday evening after holding negotiations on Friday with Mount Sinai administrators and with NewYork-Presbyterian officials on Thursday.

Hospital administrators say they will follow the lead of contract mediators on when to meet again with their union counterparts. 

The hospitals say the union is demanding a 25 per cent salary increase over three years.

“NYSNA’s demands ignore the economic realities of healthcare in New York city and the country,” New York-Presbyterian said in a statement on Tuesday, citing federal cuts to Medicaid and rising overall costs.