About 50 nurses and technicians at Down East Community Hospital in Machias are planning a two-day strike starting Tuesday. The purpose, they say, is to call attention to working conditions that are jeopardizing their safety and patient care.
"There's a lot of different stressful situations that are putting us and our patients in unsafe situations. We're working with less and less support staff. Work harder and do more with less help," says Berta Alley a registered nurse at the hospital who belongs to the Maine State Nurses Association.
The association says the CFO and CEO at the hospital are getting $100,000 raises while nurses can't survive on their salaries.
"We have had several qualified nurses leave and go to other hospitals. We have other nurses who have to take second jobs to make ends meet. We just want our hospital to prioritize us," Alley says.
Hospital officials said in a statement: Since October 2019, DECH has granted pay raises raises that average 7.8% to 12.5% annually over that time period. This includes a significant pay increase that DECH proposed in November 2022 outside of the contract. We feel that these increases were successful in recruitment of new staff. In May 2023, we were utilizing 23 temporary personnel in our unionized departments. As of last month, we are now using 12 temporary personnel, and have hired three additional full-time employees [that could work as nurses or technicians].
The union has been without a new contract since October.