[pickledpepperRN]

Nurses Union Voting On EMMC Strike Proposal

BANGOR (NEWS CENTER) -- The nurses union at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor resumed voting Friday to authorize a one day strike.
They're concerned about staffing levels, pay, and health insurance….

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=71388

[Freedom42]

Nurses voted overwhelmingly last night to authorize a strike. Bargaining continues today.

Here's a link to remarkably disappointing coverage by the Bangor Daily News, which apparently couldn't be bothered to update the vote on its website today.

The union posts updates here.

[leslymill]

With the culunary strikes, nurse strikes in Californiaand Nevada too, California assistant teacher strikes and a President threatening to veto a bill that will provide healthcare to thousands of US children, I HOPE NOBODY CROSSES THOSE PICKET LINES... like the Bankor Hospital arrogantly suggests business will be as usual and nurse tantrums are easily remedied. I hope they see their patients family members are having to give bedbathes and they have to eevacuate to provide proper care.

[pickledpepperRN]

Here are some of the Maine State Nurses Association nurses from a newscast before the notice to strike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep2kc...elated&search=

[Freedom42]

BANGOR, Maine — The nursing union at Eastern Maine Medical Center rejected the hospital negotiating team’s final contract offer Sunday afternoon and announced its intention to call a one-day strike. The official strike notice is expected this morning, both sides said Sunday night. By law, the union must give the hospital 10 days to prepare for the walk-out.

http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/cit...870&zoneid=176

[pickledpepperRN]

Greater Bangor

Nurses to strike at EMMC
Monday, October 1, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine — The nursing union at Eastern Maine Medical Center rejected the hospital negotiating team’s final contract offer Sunday afternoon and announced its intention to call a one-day strike. The official strike notice is expected this morning, both sides said Sunday night. By law, the union must give the hospital 10 days to prepare for the walk-out….

…"They’ve always had the power to stop this at any time," said staff nurse Judy Brown, president of Unit 1 of the Maine State Nurses Association. While negotiations, which have been under way since July, had found common ground on a number of other measures, Brown said the union’s top contract priority has always been the creation of a professional practice committee made up of all direct-care staff nurses and without any nursing managers.
The committee would be empowered to set nurse-to-patient staffing levels and influence other matters such as the use of technology in delivering patient care or the need for additional support staff such as unit secretaries.
"We’re asking for a committee to have more voice and control over our profession," Brown said.

The hospital could not accept the committee as envisioned by the union, said Jill McDonald, vice president for communications at EMMC…

…An eleventh-hour emergency bargaining session with a federal mediator has been scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 2. But if the stalemate holds, EMMC nurses could strike by the middle of next week….

http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/cit...870&zoneid=176

[pickledpepperRN]

Greater Bangor
Negotiations continue as EMMC nurses union sets strike date

By Meg Haskell
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR - Nurses from Eastern Maine Medical Center hand-delivered their official strike notice to a hospital official shortly after 9 a.m. Monday. The walk-out is set to begin at 7 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, and end at 7 a.m. Friday, Oct. 12.

By law, the nursing union is required to provide the hospital with a 10-day notice to allow the institution to prepare. There are about 870 nurses in the union at EMMC.
Negotiators from both sides are scheduled to meet once again today with a federal mediator from the National Labor Relations Board to see if the nursing strike can be averted…

… Negotiations have addressed a number of thorny issues, including pay and benefits, the appropriate use of electronic technologies and other matters, but the apparent deal-breaker is the nurses’ demand for a "professional practice committee."

The proposed committee would be composed of only direct-care nurses — no managers or administrators — and would have a powerful voice in deciding how many nurses should be assigned to each nursing unit of the hospital based on patient needs, nurse experience, the availability of support staff and other factors.

According to Brown, many units now are routinely short-staffed, overtaxing direct-care nurses and compromising patient safety….

… Johnson said the hospital has no intention of allowing unionized nurses to exclude managers from staffing decisions. Nurse managers are among the hospital’s most experienced employees, and it’s their job to see that units are adequately staffed, she said.

The union’s demand is "very disrespectful," Johnson said. "It is not the tone or the culture I want here at Eastern Maine Medical Center."…

http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/cit...894&zoneid=176

At my hospital the Professional Practice Committee makes recommendations to the VP of Nursing.
She is required to provide a written answer. She is smart enough not to put some of the flippant remarks we hear in writing. (An example is the manager who said, “A balloon pump is the same as any central line. You don’t need special training for that.”)

A previous manager put illegal practices in writing and we showed the answer to our medical director.

Now answers are reasonable. I think having to answer on the record or in writing forces them to actually pay attention to nurses’ reports and observations. We then insist on their keeping their promises.
We cannot "dictate" staffing levels but can pursuade the hospital to obey the law and provide sufficient nurses for safe and effective patient care.