lost $15 million last year<\/a>, down from $156\u00a0million in 2024.<\/p>\nDeb Sanford, chief nursing officer for Northern Light EMMC, said the health system \u201cis committed to engaging in good faith bargaining\u201d with state and national nurses unions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are focused on reaching a fair contract agreement that reflects the importance of our nurses\u2019 role in delivering safe, high-quality care to our patients and accounts for the current and future realities of healthcare in Maine,\u201d Sanford said.<\/p>\n
The contract with the nurses\u2019 union expired Nov. 21, 2025, and talks have continued since, a Northern Light spokesperson said on Wednesday, also noting that the nurses in attendance at Friday\u2019s picket were not on duty.<\/p>\n
In addition to established patient-nurse ratios, the union is also pushing for increased screening for weapons and better safety protections, including a metal detector at the hospital\u2019s front entrance, Oberson said, adding that these increased protections would help both nurses and patients.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators on Friday carried a mix of printed and hand-made signs with messages such as \u201csafe staffing & fair pay\u201d and \u201cprotect patients, trust nurses.\u201d Some also wore shirts that read, \u201cwe will strike for our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
They first gathered at State Street\u2019s Cascade Park before marching to and from the hospital up the street, drawing many honks of support from passing cars.<\/p>\n
City Councilor Daniel Carson, who works as a labor organizer with unions around the state, joined Friday\u2019s picket to support Bangor\u2019s nurses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been fighting for safe staffing ratios in the state, in the Legislature,\u201d Carson said, \u201cand to me that\u2019s important because we\u2019re all going to need that care, and when we need that care, we need nurses who are empowered to be by our bedside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maine State Nurses Association\/National Nurses Organizing Committee represents 900 EMMC nurses, according to the union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 100 union nurses and supporters gathered outside Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor Friday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,197756,1148],"class_list":{"0":"post-412249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-staff-photography","12":"tag-surprise"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}