BANGOR, Maine — At a membership meeting Friday, registered nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new collective bargaining contract with the hospital, the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced Friday night.
“We are united by our commitment to the patients we serve,” Chief Steward Steve Akerly, a registered nurse at EMMC, said after the vote. “Today’s vote shows that Eastern Maine nurses don’t just talk the talk. We walk the walk.”
Significant measures to strengthen patient care delivery were key to the contract settlement, the union said in a news release.
A centerpiece of the contract is the hospital’s commitment to hire 30 additional registered nurses to alleviate staffing shortages, reduction of patient care assignments for nurses working night shifts, and expansion of the use of “resource nurses” to buttress safe staffing in the Emergency Department and on general medical-surgical patient floors.
Further, the contract will expand the voice of RNs in addressing patient care concerns with management, through their elected Professional Practice Committee, including shortening the time for management to respond to concerns raised by the PPC about hospital staffing plans, and an independent review panel for resolving disputes.
All EMMC RNs will receive a 6 percent pay increase over the three years of the agreement, which they say, along with several other economic improvements, will help with retention of experienced RNs for the community served by the hospital.
Unionized nurses also said they were “able to resist any reductions in RN economic or workplace standards, as sought by many hospital employers across the nation.”
After working under an extended contract since May and authorizing a strike last month, the nurses say they are proud to have stood their ground to reach this agreement, which they call “groundbreaking.”
The union represents 800 registered nurses at the hospital.
“Our unity is our strength,” MSNA president and EMMC RN Cokie Giles said. “Because we stood together, management had to listen to our concerns. We look forward to having even more tools now to serve our community with the highest possible quality of care.”
MSNA/NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest U.S. organization of nurses. In Maine, MSNA represents more than 2,000 nurses who work in facilities and agencies throughout the state.