NURSES in several Zimbabwean cities went on strike Tuesday to demand a pay increase, three days after doctors ended a seven-week work boycott in protest at low salaries and poor working conditions. The nurses said the government had ignored their ultimatum to increase their salaries, leaving them with no option but to go on strike. “We will not go back to work until they (government) give us something on the plate,” Michael Mashingaidze, vice-president of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association, said. In the affected cities, all medical departments at government hospitals were closed except emergency wards. The doctors ended their strike after the government gave them a written undertaking to increase their salaries in January, a pledge authorities suspect might have galvanised the nurses into going on strike as well.