The union representing 2,000 nurses at Maine Medical Center has reached a tentative agreement with hospital management on the union’s initial contract, with the two sides agreeing on 15 percent raises over three years.
The three-year tentative agreement comes weeks after an Aug. 18 vote to decertify the union failed 76 percent to 24 percent. The union was formed in May 2021.
If ratified by union members as expected, nurses will get a 7 percent wage hike in the first year, and 15 percent over the life of the contract. The new contract also would settle issues on “workplace safety, wages, benefits and working conditions,” the Maine State Nurses Association said in a statement.
“The momentum from our huge recertification victory gave us the final push we needed to get this deal done,” Nadine Kern, a member of the union bargaining team and a Maine Med critical care nurse, said in a statement. “Nurses are more engaged and unified than ever. It’s our unity that makes us strong.”
Nurses from Maine Medical Center tape cards with their questions for Maine Health CEO Andrew Mueller to the door of the Maine Health building on Free Street in Portland on Tuesday. They have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Devin Carr, Maine Medical Center’s chief nursing officer, said in a statement that the hospital is “pleased to arrive at a tentative contract agreement with the union representing nurses at its Bramhall, Brighton and Scarborough campuses. We are looking forward to a quick ratification by members of the bargaining unit.”
Nurses represented by the union work at Maine Medical Center on Bramhall Street in Portland, the hospital’s satellite campus on Brighton Avenue in Portland and its Scarborough Surgery Center.
The nurses will hold a contract ratification vote next week. The agreement includes guaranteed breaks and mealtimes, and ends mandatory rotations between day shifts and night shifts.
“After more than 30 bargaining sessions over the course of 13 months, we are excited about the positive changes our first union contract will bring to nurses and patients alike,” said Mary Kate O’Sullivan, a bargaining team member and medical-surgical nurse at Maine Med.
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