Maine State Nurses Association

Nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center have secured a tentative contract with the hospital after a months-long effort.

BANGOR, Maine - A union representing nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center say their members are going on a two-day strike next week over staffing levels at the Bangor hospital.

The Maine State Nurses Association, National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United contract with Eastern Maine Medical Center expires Thursday. In a press release, union officials say there has been little movement over the staffing issue since April.  They maintain that current staffing levels at the facility put patient safety at risk.

BANGOR, Maine - A Maine hospital and nursing union are negotiating about a contract that is set to expire.

The Maine State Nurses Association, National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United contract with Eastern Maine Medical Center expires on Thursday. Bargaining teams representing the union and the hospital are resuming negotiations that have stalled in recent meetings.

The hospital says staffing ratios and compensation are the biggest issues remaining on the table.

BANGOR, Maine - Representatives for a Maine hospital say bargaining teams and a nursing union are agreeing to extend the nurses' current contract through July 2.

A spokesman for Eastern Maine Medical Center says bargaining teams representing the hospital and Maine State Nurses Association, National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United met on Wednesday. The spokesman says the parties were not able to come to an agreement on a new contract but did extend the current one.

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."