BANGOR, Maine — Despite a 12-hour negotiating session Thursday, Eastern Maine Medical Center and the union representing roughly 850 registered nurses who work there were unable to close a contract deal.
Negotiators for the hospital and the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United got together shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday. Working with a federal mediator, the two teams stayed at the bargaining table until nearly 10 p.m., spokeswomen for the two groups said.
In separate interviews earlier this week, however, representatives from both sides of the bargaining table expressed similar goals. Both sides said they want to see a new contract in place — preferably a three-year agreement — and both said they believe that goal can be achieved.
The next session with the mediator is set for next Wednesday.
But without a mutually acceptable contract offer in place at the end of Thursday’s marathon bargaining session, union nurses are gearing up for an informational picket next Tuesday near the hospital’s main campus
The one-year contract that expired was ratified last May after eight months of often contentious negotiations. In addition to marathon contract talks, there was picketing, a strike, a lockout and threats of a second strike and lockout.
Among the issues resolved in that agreement were the transfers of nurses among departments, the workload for charge nurses and health benefits. Not addressed were staffing ratios, which nurses said at the time was a major sticking point.
Contract provisions remain in place, however.
In the current round of negotiations, hospital officials have noted that dozens of new positions have been added at EMMC. Nurses say more are needed.
Details about the informational picket were not available late Thursday night.
A notice that the union presented the hospital last week said that picketing will take place at three of the hospital’s locations — EMMC’s main campus on State Street, the EMMC Healthcare Mall on Union Street, both in Bangor; and at CancerCare of Maine off Wilson Street in Brewer.
A post on the nurses unions’ website referred only to gathering on State Street in front of the main campus at a time to be announced later.
Although participants hold signs and banners and the like, an informational picket is not a strike. Rather, it is meant to allow unions in negotiation to provide information to the public.
Some of those in attendance likely will be supporters who are not employees of the hospital and in some cases not nurses.
The nurses holding signs are off duty, EMMC spokeswoman Jill McDonald noted in an update Thursday night.
“Nurses who are scheduled to work will be at patients’ bedsides provided the excellent care they usually do,” she said.
In the meantime, EMMC took steps Thursday night to reassure patients, their families and the community that care will continue uninterrupted as union nurses and representatives hold an informational picket on Tuesday.
Sticking points in this round of talks include staffing levels, security in the emergency department and pay.
The nurses, who did not receive a cost of living increase in the contract that expired at midnight last Thursday, are seeking 3 percent increases for each of the three years of their next contract — or a 5 percent increase if only a one-year agreement is reached, Jennifer Sedgwick, a member of the nurses union’s negotiating team, said Monday.
The union also is seeking benefit improvements, including an additional pay step and more pay for nurses who are called in to work outside of their regular hours.
In a contract update posted on its website Monday, EMMC said its “last, best, final offer” called for 3 percent the first year and 2 percent for each of the subsequent two years and a 3 percent increase in the event that only a one-year pact is achieved.
In the update, the hospital said that given uncertainties in what it can expect in reimbursements from federal and state government programs, “we feel our offers are as much as we should offer.”
I would say no pay raise unless everyone else who deserves one got one . We Do not want another ALEC bill LD???? By Andry Cushing saying that we can now have CNAs do the work of nurses and we only need half as many . To encourage High school kids to get into the nursing field. Union is a great tool if not abused . When they do not have extra money it is so wrong to strike for more. To Ask for real issues like safety is one thing.
I’m tired of hearing how overworked and underpaid the EMMC nurses think they are.
They certainly aren’t the only profession in the state that deserves a pay raise, but they definitely are the most vocal (read: whiny) about their self-perceived “injustice”.
They will get their pay raises. the other support staff (who make much less) will be screwed though.
Exactly right blanc12. All other support staff have their pay froze…no raises. In this economic environment if I was the nurses I would take the money and SHUT UP, your already getting it better than everyone else.
When I get in a plane I want my pilot happy and well rested. When I go to the hospital I want my nurses and doctors happy and well paid. When I send my kids off to school I want their teachers happy and well paid. When I go into any administrators office or politician’s office (Is there a difference?) I always come out thinking, that person should be fired. GO NURSES!
I recommend Tai Chi. :)
That said… I would hope that if any nurse is so unhappy with their job they quit immediately. (Pilots are legally obligated to be well rested btw)
I think that it’s too bad that the EMMC nurses don’t realize that the union leaders are taking them down the wrong road. Asking for a 5% raise in this economy shows that they are greedy and out of touch with reality. This media campaign of telling us how overworked and underpaid they are continues, just makes us question their judgement. The article says that staff have been added. I guess all of those nurses won’t be needed if we patients get sick of thier whining and don’t trust them anymore. WAKE UP EMMC NURSES
Here we go again. Is this going to be a yearly ritual? The nurses already earn more than most of the people in the Bangor area. I know they do a great job. And I’d love to see them get paid more. But there is no money. The state is broke. The federal government is broke. How bout they listen to the appointed one and ‘share the sacrifice’? Really, they should be ashamed of themselves.
And to be fair to the nurses…the hospital administrators (paper pushers) making several hundred grand a year….IN BANGOR OF ALL PLACES, should be ashamed of themselves as well.
bangorjack gets the point: the top administrators at EMMC/EMHC earn at least $500,000 a year as mere base salary, and head honcho Michelle Hood earned about $650,000 a year in mere base salary two years ago, when last reported in the BDN. The argument that the organization has no money is a joke, and those who believe the well-paid PR folks probably thinks that the Koch Bros., the major Tea Party supporters, are akin to Mother Teresa. Not coincidentally, CEO Hood is now Chair of the Board of Trustees of the U Maine System–appointed by pseudo-Democrat John Baldacci in his last year in office–and has been as oppositional to any pay raises for System employees (not just faculty but poorly paid secretaries, etc.) on the same specious grounds of there being no money. Get real, those who think the nurses should be simply shut up and not rock the corporate boat.