Santa Claus Delivers His Remarks About MMC’s Termination of Paid Leave Benefits at a Press Conference Last December 2022.

A Basketfull of Coal With Jeff Sanders Name Delivered to Him Immediaely Following the December 21, 2022 Press Conference in Front of Maine Med., Portland.

After a two-month campaign, the unionized nurses at Maine Medical Center (Maine Med) have won back the paid leave benefits that the hospital abruptly ended last December, announced the Maine State Nursing Association early this morning.

The nurses’ campaign began with a rally on December 21 in which about 50 nurses, with the help of Santa Claus, delivered lumps of coal to Maine Med President Jeff Sanders’ office.  The following month, nurses and other Maine Med employees throughout the hospital wore stickers at work.  These stickers called on Maine Med to restore the negotiated and agreed upon benefits for the unionized nurses.  A roving delegation of nurses spent a day confronting administrators in their offices, forcing them to discuss with them the real-life impacts this loss of paid leave benefits was having on nurses who were new parents, those who were greving the loss of loved ones, and those who were serving their community through jury duty or military service.

Nurses also solicited nearly 500 postcards from community members, which were sent to President Jeff Sanders’ home, demainding that the paid leave benefits be restored.  Nurses hung posters in hundreds of businesses around Portland inviting community members to email MMC President Jeff Sanders and echo their demands.  On February 12, 2023, the nurses published an opinion piece in the “Sunday Maine Telegram.”  Five days later on February 17, Maine Med executives agreed to restore the nurses’ benefits.

In addition to restoring the nurses’ paid leave benefits, Maine Med also agreed to new provisions in the nurses’ union contract, including time-and-a-half pay for salaried nurses who pick up extra shifts and a new hospital-wide system of “senior perks” that will give additional time off to the most senior nurses..

“We are absolutely thrilled to have back our paid leave that we were always entitled to keeping, but that the hospital chose to take away from us,” said Mary Kate O’Sullivan, RN.  “We finally won it back without making any concessions. This is a clear testament to the power of the nurses when we act collectively.  We’re not going to forget the things that management does to us,but I think now they realize when they take things away from us, we’re not going to stop fighting until we get them back,” said O’Sullivan in a press release issued early this morning by Todd Ricker of the Maine State Nurses Association.

“The fact that no one from “The Portland Press Herald” or the “Maine SundayTelegram” bothered to attend the December 21st press conference at Maine Med speaks volumes about the mngements’  bias against the working people of Portland,” said Carol McCracken, of the Munjoyhillnews.com.

For more background information on this matter, please visit post herein dated December 21, 2022, entitled “MMC Nurses Scrooged by Management for the Holidays.”