BANGOR, Maine — Eastern Maine Medical Center is preparing for its nurses to go on strike July 13 and 14, the hospital’s management announced in a statement Thursday.
At the start of bargaining on Thursday, the hospital received a notice from the Maine State Nurses Association, National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United that its members plan to strike at EMMC’s State Street campus, the Union Street health care mall and the Lafayette Family Cancer Center in Brewer.
In June, bargaining teams representing EMMC and the nurses were unable to reach a new contact, and the current deal was extended through July 2, the second extension since the nurses’ original contract ended on May 30.
The union represents about 858 EMMC nurses.
EMMC officials remain hopeful an agreement can be reached but are preparing for a strike.
“EMMC is prepared to continue providing care and services for our patients,” EMMC President and CEO Deborah Carey Johnson said in the statement. “We will have highly qualified replacement nurses working alongside EMMC staff to provide the high level of care our patients expect.”
Deb Sanford, EMMC’s vice president and chief nursing officer, said later Thursday about 250 nurses from Autumn Staffing will arrive in town for the start of the 7 a.m. shift on July 13.
Sanford said Autumn Staffing is the same staffing agency hospital officials used during a one-day strike in 2010.
“We’re really confident that the nurses that will be coming to Maine will be delivering high-quality care,” Sanford said.
Union members eventually ratified a one-year contract in May 2011, after eight months of often contentious negotiations that included a strike, work stoppage and lockout, with threats of a second strike and lockout. Even after ratifying the last contract, nurses said staffing remained a problem.
According to a statement from the National Nurses Union, negotiations have been ongoing since April over the issue of safe staffing and little movement has occurred.
On Thursday morning, registered nurses delivered a 10-day notice to hospital officials of their intent to strike.
“We want time at the bedside to care for our patients as if they were our own family members or loved-ones,” Cokie Giles, a registered nurse at EMMC and national co-president of NNOC, said in the statement. “That’s why having enough nurses is so important to us. This fight is for our patients and for the public health of our community.”
The nurses’ union voted June 4 to authorize the strike, saying their new contract must address “critical issues impacting patient safety,” to reduce injuries, infections and bedsores among patients treated at the hospital. The union has pointed to a study that found lower staffing ratios are associated with fewer patient deaths and greater job satisfaction among nurses.
EMMC has refused to set patient-nurse ratios, saying they rob the hospital of the flexibility to staff based on the needs of patients.
While the union has highlighted patient safety as the main sticking point, hospital officials say compensation for nurses is another stumbling block to agreeing on a new contract.
Sanford remains optimistic a contract can be reached in the near future. She added the current proposal from the union is a one-year contract with a pay increase of six percent.
The hospital is required to make a multiday commitment to secure replacement nurses, meaning they would start work on the morning of July 13 through the morning of July 17, which would help minimize disruption for patients, the statement said.
Sanford said the public should not be concerned about not receiving quality care.
“We don’t expect to have any changes in business,” she said.
Bangor Daily News Health Editor Jackie Farwell contributed to this report.
