BANGOR, Maine — Nurses at Northern Light Acadia Hospital's inpatient and outpatient mental health facility in Bangor have filed to unionize with the American Federation of Teachers.
The announcement made by the Maine AFL-CIO in a news release Wednesday morning said nurses made the move to file "Acadia Nurses United" in order to "gain a stronger voice to address safe staffing, patient safety, and other workplace issues."
Acadia Nurses United would represent 111 nurses at the psychiatric hospital, according to the release.
The decision to unionize followed complaints about upper management failing to address "safe staffing, recruitment and retention, as well as its lack of communication and responsiveness to employee concerns."
Amanda Sotirelis, a family nurse practitioner at Northern Light Acadia Hospital, made the following statement in the release regarding the decision to unionize:
"People have been leaving in droves. It used to be really good to work here, but lately, it’s been horrendous, mainly due to management changeovers. Patients are suffering because they’re not receiving the attention they should be getting. But instead of fixing systemic staffing problems, management just keeps putting bandaids on the problem and throwing more money at the problem in the wrong ways.
"We deeply care about our patients and that’s why we’re sticking around and forming this union so we can have a much stronger voice to advocate for them, create a more stable environment and improve care. We urge Northern Light to respect our right to collectively bargain and remain neutral in our effort to unionize.”
In response, Northern Light Acadia Hospital released the following statement:
"Northern Light Acadia Hospital has been notified that American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO union is seeking to represent a group of employees. We are currently reviewing the materials received last Friday, Oct. 21 at approximately 12 p.m. We prefer a direct relationship with our employees and care teams, and will follow the appropriate process for an election."
Nurses will get the chance to vote in an upcoming election made by the National Labor Relations Board to allow for their union to become official, the release said.