The Entrance to Maine Medical Center.

Registered nurses at Maine Medical Center, Portland, ratified their first-ever union contract that they say will provide patient care protections and strong standards to improve retention and recruitment according to an announcement from Maine State Nurses Association today.  Voting on the three year agreement took place Wednesday and Thursday September 21 and 22.

Maine Medical Center nurses first voted to unionize in April of 2021 and then voted to re-certify their union last month.

Highlights of the 3-year agreement include:  patient care protections, safe staffing, providing minimum orientation times for newly graduated nurses, guaranteed breaks and mealtimes, protections against unsafe floating, diversity, equity and inclusion and economic gains.

“We feel the imperative of history in our vote,” said Michele Flaherty, bargaining team member and pediatric ICU registered nurse.  “We stand in a long line of Maine Med nurses who have fought for their union over the past half century.  Nurses first attempt to unionize at Maine Med was in 1976.”

For more background information, please visit post herein dated August 18, 2022.