BANGOR, Maine — A bargaining session Wednesday morning between Eastern Maine Medical Center and the union representing the roughly 850 nurses who work there ended Wednesday without an agreement after less than two hours.
Members of the hospital’s bargaining team and negotiators for the Maine State Nurses Association, National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United were scheduled to begin contract talks at 10 a.m., union members said Tuesday during an informational picket near EMMC.
In a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon, EMMC administrators said that after a short session, “EMMC restated its final offer, the union did not respond, and the mediator ended the session around 11:30 am.”
The nurses union had yet to make a statement as of 5 p.m.
The union has proposed that EMMC add or maintain a resource nurse every day on eight nursing units. Resource nurses cover for nurses who are busy with a patient, call in sick, are on break or otherwise tied up.
“In addition to house-wide resource nurses and Rapid Response Teams, resource nurses are already in place on many of these units, and EMMC continues to work with unit staff to determine staffing models that are appropriate,” the hospital said Wednesday.
“EMMC maintains staffing decisions do not belong in a contract. No one can predict future staffing challenges and needs. Patient volume, technology, acuity, and other factors will affect staffing,” EMMC said in the statement. “It would be irresponsible to commit contractually to one staffing approach for the future knowing we would have to persuade the union to adjust the contract should these factors change.”
“We hope union members will be given the opportunity to vote on what EMMC views as a reasonable and fair offer,” the hospital concluded.
The one-year contract that expired earlier this month 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 were a major sticking point.
Contract provisions remain in place, however.
As of Wednesday, no further bargaining dates had been scheduled by the federal mediator.
I saw you guys protesting yesterday, keep up the fight! From one nurse to another, patient safety and quality nursing are priorities.
This entire situation makes the nurses look like petulant children – not even willing to negotiate.
I hope they strike again, showing exactly how much they “care about their patients”.
Then they can also see how easily they can be replaced…
Wow…didn’t realize you have been sitting in during these negotiations beets…please tell us all exactly how they haven’t been negotiating for the last few months, have Greg and the rest of the EMMC negotiators been talking to themselves?!
EMMC restated its final offer, the union did not respond, and the mediator ended the session around 11:30 am.”
Nurses should stick to their guns. The pomposity of the EMMC in this critical issue is ludicrous. And, so is your stand against the nurses. But then, you always come out on the side of the pontificating rich who make millions by robbing the workers. A real Romney fan.
In this particular case the nurses are attempting to ensure safety of patients with an adequate nursing force. They claim that nurses’ ranks have been depleted by the rich managers, especially after their last walk out, which resulted in many changes and lay-offs.
How anyone can be so antagonistic toward nurses defies reason.
um…they did respond. They said the “final offer” was not acceptable
Another well informed reader of the BDN…..next time do a little research as to what both sides of the table have been doing before you spew false information…..you might be amazed at what you find…..but then again….you probably know everything anyway.
EMMC restated its final offer, the union did not respond, and the mediator ended the session around 11:30 am.”
What needs to be replaced is the overpaid and under qualified fat cats sitting at the top of the EMMC hierarchy siphoning off valuable and scarce resources from the people actually doing the work in the trench’s at the patients bedside, the nurse’s. Keep fighting the good fight Nurse’s, your community supports you.
Nurses care. It’s you and people like you who believe in this tea party edict that workers should be treated like peasants and relegated to the gutter.
Lives and patient care outcomes are in the balance. You do not compromise on that.
Seeing these signs reminds me of my younger days crossing the picket lines and working as a SCAB replacement worker at the International Paper mill in Jay. Like this is about patient care? Remember boys and girls Greed is one of the seven deady sins!
So a self-described scab — who crossed a picket line to steal someone else’s pay check — is calling nurses greedy. You truly can’t fix stupid.
“So a self-described scab –”
Yes, that is what he said.
~~~~~
“who crossed a picket line to steal someone
else’s pay check”
No, the workers decided to strike, the company has contracts to fill, they hired replacement workers so they wouldn’t be in breach of contract which would have cost hundreds of thousand of dollars and ultimately could have closed the mill. The union workers did what they thought they had to do and the company did what they had to do to keep there customers happy.
~~~~~
“– is calling nurses greedy.”
Do you think that the nurses are the only group of workers that haven’t received a raise at EMMC over the past several years?
~~~~~
“You truly can’t fix
stupid. ”
No you can’t but you also can’t fix people that are greedy and put themselves ahead of all their co-workers too.
Thanking nasty scabs everywhere for helping to lower the bar for American workers everywhere!!!
Union greed and stupidity were the culprits at Jay. The union miscalculated and cost jobs.
Nope. You need to start doing some research on the negotiating policies of International Paper Company before you start assessing blame in that situation. Here’s a quick primer for you, describing what happens after a tense few days of “negotiating” at every IP plant where IP has refused to move on nearly every issue:
IP: “This is our last and final offer at this time.”
Union: “Wait! We still need to talk about these issues.”
IP: “This is our last and final offer. Should you turn it down our next offer will be worse than this one. Should you turn that down the next one will be worse yet and that will continue UNTIL YOU GET THE MESSAGE!”
BTDT
The union workers at Jay stood up for what they believed was right. They simply miscalulated the coldblooddeness and greed of IP. Were you to plot on a timeline graph of the economy of the workers of the state of Maine you’d see that the the Jay strike was the very beginning of the downturn.
Want to know who’s REALLY responsible for the downturn in the NATIONAL economy? Blame the US Supreme Court. They’re the ones who did away with the “cooling off period” during which time management wasn’t allowed to hire scabs. During the “cooling off period” the plant had to be either run by managment people or shut down so during that time both parties suffered.
Unfortunately for the workers, even eliminating the “coolintg off period” wasn’t enough to satisfy the corporations. Eventually they began to shut down plants, both union and non-union, all over the country in their quest for corporate profits – at the expense of the people who had their lives tied up in the company – and move their jobs to Mexico. (In a bit of poetic justice, those Mexican workers who thought they suddenly had the world by the tail have seen their jobs disappear too as the companies relocated ot Asia).
Now that it’s ok to hire scabs the companies simply starve the unions out by hiring scabs, some of whom (like kowskrool) are apparently proud of the fact that they’ve been pawns in the game of Corporate Greed.
As EDRN said, “You can’t fix stupid”.
Since when is requesting additional help in order to ensure patient safety – greed?
You retorts are typical feudal Baron to the peasant.
Somehow the nurses are greedy, but the top executives of Eastern Maine HealthCare, including saintly Eric Steele, who make hundreds of thousands in mere base salary, are immune to such comments. Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon would be proud of that perspective, as would Mitt Romney.
There is most probably a few good nurses that work there. The I.C.U. nurses only have 2 patients to care for. Please tell me how over worked and under staffed they are. I worked at a nursing home were I had up to 18 residents to get ready for the day.
Go back to your corner office on the top floor of EMMC and work on your putting skills some more.
Sounds like stonefury is/was a CNA. RNs don’t ‘get residents ready for the day’ in nursing homes. Not knocking CNAs, either, as we all couldn’t do our jobs without each other. But don’t even THINK about pretending to know what a RN deals with, especially those special, well-trained ones in ICU/CCU.
I chose to help The CNA’s when I was able. Starting out as a CNA before I advanced to RN, I know how hard their job is.
I’ve never been one, but I have nothing but outright respect for them. Like I said before, NOT ONE of us could do our jobs without each other. I have never been beyond bathing or feeding or toileting a patient, and you’ll NEVER hear me say “thats not my job”. But when a CNA condescendingly tries to say that their job of bathing and dressing a large number of patients is the equivalent of an ICU nurse tending to patients who are wavering between life and death, that’s insulting and the CNA has no right passing judgement on whether or not the RN is busy enough to demand help.
I am happy to state: I don’t work for them. So telling me to go to a corner office is obtuse.
Wow. Just wow. “Only 2 patients”. You have no idea. Two critically-ill patients on ventilators, heart monitors, receiving blood and mulitiple, complex IV medications needing constant titration to regulate things like blood pressure and blood sugar, feeding tubes and urinary catheters….. Nana might not be getting dressed as quickly as you’d like, but that is NOTHING compaired to what the nurses in the ICU/CCU have to deal with. Do you think these nurses should have 18 of these types of patients before they have the right to ask for help?
Reading some of this corn, is a door opener into the thinking of the brainwashed who are in lock step with Romney, Boehner, McConnell, Ryan and the Koch brothers.
To them, nurses, teachers, fire fighters and police officers should be relegated to the ranks of peasants. A nurse’s work load is beyond the comprehension of most of these posters who wince like Limbaugh, “Greed.” Not one of these critics could stand one arduous hour in the ER and even less on any of the floors, where patients are treated with care and compassion, and a tremendous amount of skill.
Nurses save lives. They comfort and care for the sick. Only when your life is threatened will you understand what nurses do.
So back off with your rotten comments about greed and “look for another job.”
Stand your ground, nurses.
The EMMC has a damned good company of nurses. Forget your hesitancy. Nurses are ready to tackle everything – and do. Give them a break and forget the corporate zeal.
My comment has nothing to due with corporate zeal. I did my training there.
There are good nurses at EMMC, unfortunately over the years many have been spoiled by the top administrators who are also all nurses. While other professional employees are treated as second class citizens the nurses have been given pretty much given what they have wanted until it can no longer be afforded. Unfortunately the administrators are now in a position where they have only the support of the employees they can intimidate. It appears that the problems that have been so well publisized at Acadia Hospital are system wide.
Since when is adding extra help – greed?
Sounds like stonefury is/was a CNA. RNs don’t ‘get residents ready for the day’ in nursing homes. Not knocking CNAs, either, as we all couldn’t do our jobs without each other. But don’t even THINK about pretending to know what a RN deals with, especially those special, well-trained ones in ICU/CCU.
Unions are the problem and the nurses need to get it through their heads. If you don’t like your options, leave the business. I’m sick of hearing that “it’s about the patients”. BULL@#$T!!! Why to we only hear about your concern for patients when it’s contract time. GET A LIFE!!!
Let’s see….could it be because the BDN only covers the negotiations, the rest of the year its not news worthy for them, yet staffing/patient levels have been a concern all year for the nurses and have been talking and working with EMMC regarding this since the last contract. Why is it UnionS_K you can’t even understand a simple concept like this? Rather than yelling “GET A LIFE!!!” maybe you should “GET AN EDUCATION!!!” on negotiations and journalism!
I was shop steward of two Unions and you do not have to explain the process to me. You know as well as I do that you can use different avenues throughout the year to voice your concerns about patient safety if you really care. Even with HIPPA, you can tell storys without using names. Give the public specific examples. Patient safety, and other “issues” are brought up by unions during contract negotiations to try and get the public behind you. Striking actually looks bad during a bad economy as we are having now. I tell you that the Union is your problem and your Union management is making bad decisions for you. I have had family members as patients in your facility (I believe that you work at EMMC) that have heard their nurses complain about pay and the hospital. Well go get another job if you do not like it!! If the hospital sucks, people will choose another. I have gone to the other Bangor Hospital for procedures because of this and was treated excellent. The public is NOT stupid and they know that you want more money. But you like every other profession need to tighten your belt and ride the recession. Everyone is feeling the pain. GET A LIFE was probably the wrong thing to say, GET A GRIP ON REALITY is more fitting!!!! Love – UnionsS__k
Ok that was a really long diatribe to essentially say very little. First i am not a nurse or part of emmc at all and it has been talked about throughout the previous year starting with the last contract according many nurses I know. The problem they clearly are most concerned about is staffing and safety issues, which could be addressed by resource pool if the hospital would step up and actually staff this group for all units. Second stop using the economy as an excuse. It has been growing since the last quarter of 2009 and has averaged around 2.5% year over year since then (We are not in a recession anymore). The nurses have a right to pursue wage increases just like any other working person and 3% is not asking for much at all. The 5% request on the 1yr is a clear tactic to voice their opposition to signing only a 1yr deal, it seems pretty clear they want a 3yr. However I do agree that striking is not the best option yet and should be a last resort if talks can’t progress over the next month or two.
Take two APCs, drink plenty of water, get some sleep and post again in the morning.
After some anger management, try to look at the other side of the coin. Admittedly, it’s hard for people who support Romney and the dog on his car roof, three Caddies and four mansions, and stables full of the finest horses on the face of the earth.
Much akin to Walker, assuring the Koch brothers he will destroy the unions and workers’ rights to bargaining.
DITTO as I responded to the other squatter. By the way your “president” is a communist and Unions are socialist so you go well together. If your a nurse, I’m sure Europe has a job for you.
By your definition anyone not in management is a “commie,” a “socialist?” Well, thank God we do not belong to that fascist tearepublican S….k clan.
“Daddy was a veteran, a Southern Democrat. They oughta get a rich man to vote like that.” from “Song of the South” about the depression in the rural south. Welcome to Maine, the rural North. I can only hope that we are lucky enough to get an FDR to get us out of this mess.