Maine Med Nurses Defeat Union Decertification Campaign In Landslide Vote

By Evan Popp, Maine Beacon:

Nurses at Maine Medical Center this week voted overwhelmingly to retain a union that they formed last year in response to inadequate staffing and other workplace issues at the state’s largest hospital, defeating a push to decertify the collective bargaining unit.

The results of the vote were announced Thursday and showed landslide support for the union, with 74% of nurses voting to continue their association with the Maine State Nurses Association, an affiliate of National Nurses United. In the original vote last year to form the collective bargaining unit, the pro-union side won by 14%, meaning support for the union has only grown.

The effort to decertify the union came after a contingent of Maine Medical Center nurses signed a petition to hold the election. The push was backed by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which describes its mission as attempting to eliminate the power of unions.

“The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a right-wing, out-of-state organization that goes around trying to get workers to decertify their unions,” said Mary Kate O’Sullivan, a registered nurse at Maine Med and a member of the union’s bargaining team, in a news release. “They thought because we were a new union, they could manipulate Maine Med nurses and overturn our 2021 election. But we just showed them the door.”

The attempted decertification comes as nurses have been in negotiations with the hospital for their first union contract. Progress has been made on that front, although nurses have been frustrated by Maine Medical Center’s resistance to make certain changes that staff believe would improve the safety of patients. Still, nurses said a vote against the union would have been a vote against the reforms that staff have already obtained during negotiations.

“We have been winning important improvements at the bargaining table over the past year,” said Jonica Frank, a registered nurse and member of the union’s bargaining team. “Nurses across the hospital are excited about everything we have won so far.”

“We have already negotiated historic improvements in pay, in working conditions, and on patient safety issues,” Frank added. “A ‘no’ vote in this election would have meant that all these things could be taken away from us. Once again in this election, we have spoken. And we are not going back.”

In the news release Thursday after the vote, the nurses union said they expect to complete contract negotiations with the hospital within the next couple weeks. The path to that point has not been easy, as nurses had to overcome an anti-union campaign by hospital management last year to even form a collective bargaining unit in the first place.

On Thursday, nurses celebrated their string of victories.

“We are on a winning streak,” said Lucy Dawson, another nurse who is part of the union negotiating team. “We have now won two elections. Our historic first contract is next. We are going to keep building our union and its power to benefit our patients, our community, nurses at Maine Med, and [people] across the state of Maine.”

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