MACHIAS, Maine — Nurses and health care technicians at Down East Community Hospital in Machias began a two-strike Tuesday to demand higher wages following months of gridlock in negotiations over a new contract.
“The only way we can get the hospital to listen to us is by doing this,” said nurse Roberta Alley.
Alley says her union, the Maine State Nurses Association, part of National Nurses United, is asking for a wage increase of 15% over three years for all union employees.
The hospital is offering a 3.5% bump, with other increases for working certain shifts, according to a hospital spokesperson. NEWS CENTER Maine obtained this full breakdown of the hospital's proposal:
Many workers on strike see the money that the union is asking for as both a help to employees struggling with the cost of living and an incentive for new hires that could help ease thin staffing.
“We’re a skeleton crew at night and on weekends,” said Joelle Jackson, a medical lab technician and union member. “They know what the recipe is for hiring and recruiting here, and that's what they need to do.”
Hospital representatives see the union’s demands as both unnecessary and threatening to operations. “We are extremely competitive in our current wages,” hospital spokesperson Julie Hixson said in a statement Tuesday. "To put significantly more money into the union compensation would not be financially sustainable for the hospital."
Union organizers said Tuesday that whether their demands are met or not, the nurses and technicians on strike will return to the work Thursday.