BANGOR (AP) – A union representing 870 nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center has voted to ratify a contract with the hospital, averting a threatened daylong strike next week.

The Maine State Nurses Association said full details of the contract, which was ratified in voting Friday and Saturday, would be announced today after the hospital board of trustees votes.

But the union said the agreement includes language that substantially enhances nurses’ voice in patient care delivery. It would establish a Professional Performance Committee of staff nurses to meet with management about patient care issues.

Creation of the performance committee was said to be a major issue of contention during negotiations. Issues also included staffing levels, wages and health insurance.

The union’s bargaining team had recommended approval of the tentative agreement that was reached Thursday night after a long day of negotiations. A federal mediator facilitated the talks. Ratification averts a 24-hour nurses’ strike that had been set for Wednesday.

“The bargaining team is enormously proud of the nurses for their unity and dedication in standing up for themselves and their patients,” MSNA’s Unit 1 said in a statement on its Web page that announced ratification. “The spirit and resolve showed by the Unit 1 nurses created this great breakthrough for their facility and their community.”

EMMC spokeswoman Jill McDonald, who called the tentative agreement “a compromise position that feels good to everybody” after the tentative agreement was reached, expressed hope the nurses would ratify it.

The EMMC nurses’ most recent three-year contract expired at midnight Sept. 30 and was not renewed. Since early September, the nurses expressed their view that the hospital is chronically understaffed on most patient units.

In the event of a strike, the hospital had planned to bring in replacement nurses from the U.S. Nursing Corp. of Denver.