Northern Light EMMC Nurses (MSNA) Canvass Community Amid Negotiations

On Saturday, July 19, the Maine State Nurses Association’s (MSNA) Facility Bargaining Council (FBC) at Northern Light's Eastern Maine Medicaid Center in Bangor held a “Community Door Knock Campaign” to engage the community amid negotiations for a new contract with the hospital. Their current contract is set to expire in November. Other local union members joined in the canvass.

During the canvass, the  nurses discussed with residents how their working conditions directly impact patient care and solicited input from patients about what they would like to see improved in their health care. These surveys will help guide the proposals nurses put forward at the bargaining table. Patients told nurses the biggest issues were access to care, wait times for primary care and abrupt closures of health care facilities, like Northern Light's Interventional Pain Management center in Bangor. Patients also expressed safety concerns about  accessing the hospital via public transportation.

"I didn’t expect to hear so much about transportation and access to the hospital," said MSNA member Erin Oberson. "Staff have to cross a busy street from a remote lot and there have been multiple accidents involving pedestrians and cars over the years. Patients dependent on buses reported difficulty in accessing the hospital because the stop is on State Street at the back of the hospital, and main entrance is actually off Hancock; no Saturday service, limited hours, no actual bus shelter."

Oberson canvassed with her daughter River who is training to be a nurse like her mom.

"We talked with a good cross section of folks. Young / old, housed and unhoused, a vet who gets care at Togus who very much likes that system because care is all under one roof," said Oberson.

The EMMC nurses' first bargaining session was on July 25 and the next one is on Sept. 11.