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Nurses at Bar Harbor Hospital Vote to Authorize Strike

BAR HARBOR, Maine - Registered nurses at Mount Desert Island Hospital have voted to authorize their union to call a strike.

Vanessa Sylvester, of the Maine State Nurses Association, says negotiations stalled over medical technology issues, management demands for what the union is calling "significant and arbitrary" cuts in pay rates for some nurses, and other issues.

Sylvester says the next step is federal mediation. "And it is our hope that through the federal mediator the hospital will come back to the bargaining table and work toward a resolution of this contract."

The vote yesterday came after a year of contract negotiations. If the nurses' negotiating team does decide to strike, federal law requires the union file a 10-day notice before setting a strike date.

Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.