Unionized nurses say EMMC isn’t following labor agreement
Nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center are accusing the Bangor hospital of not following an agreement to hire more nurses, but hospital officials say the recently ratified contract didn’t specify how many nurses would be hired.
The Bangor Daily News reported that unionized nurses at EMMC delivered a petition Thursday to the hospital’s parent company, demanding that management follow staffing agreements they say the hospital made as part of a contract ratified five months ago.
Cokie Giles, a nurse at the hospital and president of the Maine State Nurses Association, said at a press conference in Bangor that they sent the petition after hospital officials rejected a request for higher nurse-to-patient ratios and after the chairwoman of the hospital’s board of trustees declined to meet with the nurses.
Nurses at the hospital ratified a three-year contract in July with the hospital. Although nurses say the agreement called for 30 nurses to be hired to address staffing shortages, hospital officials say the contract doesn’t specify the number of new hires, the BDN reported.
The union represents about 800 registered nurses at the hospital.
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