Nurses Hold Informational Pickets for Safer Staffing Standards & Other Improvements at Maine Medical Cente

Registered nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland held two informational pickets on Wednesday to bring more public awareness to the nurses’ fight for better conditions at the hospital for everyone. The nurses, who are members of the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC), have been bargaining a first union contract with their employer since August 2021. The most important issues still to be resolved in these negotiations are safe RN-to-patient staffing ratios to ensure safe patient care and competitive benefits and wages for the nurses.

“Our union is our collective voice,” said Mary Kate O’Sullivan, RN in the medical-surgical department and a member of the union contract bargaining team. “I’ve been here for two years as an RN and three years as a CNA. For so long, we have talked about the kinds of changes we wanted to make here at Maine Med. Now, we’re finally making them happen by being organized and speaking out together.”

Nurses have won some improvements already through their negotiations, but more remains to be done.

“When we first began these negotiations, Maine Med nurses signed their names on a petition in support of certain important bargaining principles,” said Madison Light, RN in the interventional radiology unit and a member of the bargaining team. “We are committed to making progress on all these issues in our first union contract. That’s why want to get the best agreement we can for our patients, ourselves, and our community.”

Maine Senate President Troy Jackson and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, along with more than 60 members of the Maine State Legislature, have sent a letter to Maine Medical Center's president, board chair, and board members, urging them to negotiate and settle a fair first contract with Maine Med nurses in a timely manner. The letter noted that the nurses at Maine Med “have performed their work under extraordinarily difficult circumstances on the frontlines of this pandemic over the past two years,” and that nurses “having a seat at the table in decisions that affect their working environment will benefit the entire organization by strengthening patient safety, retention of staff and ensuring the voices of frontline employees are heard.”

Maine Med nurses were also joined on the picket line by many community supporters, including numerous other union members.