Northern Light Women's Health Dept. Nurses at EMMC Bargain for Better Pay after Joining Nurses Union this Spring

When nine Northern Light Women’s Health nurses decided this winter that they wanted to be in the union so they could bargain to improve patient care and wages, they asked the hospital to give them voluntary union recognition. But EMMC said “no.”

So, these determined nurses decided to have a union election to join the larger Maine State Nurses Association unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. In order to have a real voice for their patients and themselves, they committed to support each other and win their vote, regardless of the hospital’s misinformation leading up to the election.

This March the EMMC Women’s Health nurses voted unanimously to join MSNA. They are now part of MSNA. This was an Armour-Globe union election, where a group of workers vote to join an existing bargaining unit. Under such an election the employer does not have to automatically extend the existing union contract to the new workers coming into the union.

The nurses are currently bargaining to get on the EMMC pay scale other nurses are on. Management is thus far refusing to do that, so MSNA members at EMMC are taking action to support fair pay for their co-workers. They are currently organizing a sticker action in support of the Women's Health nurses, fair pay and getting them on the EMMC scale.