MACHIAS, Maine — Dozens of nurses and technicians employed with Down East Community Hospital held a rally Saturday in Machias to protest staffing issues amid stalled contract negotiations between the union and the hospital.
While not on strike, those in attendance had clear demands.
“We’re really looking for safe staffing and staff retention,” Roberta Alley, the chief representative for the union Maine State Nurses Association, said Saturday.
Much of the concerns raised by the employees had to do with the hospital hiring travel nurses, who often are better compensated than full-time staff.
The concern is the here-then-gone employees aren’t as effective at bringing patient care to the unique population of Washington County.
“The people here know how to treat our people. When you're from away, you don't know backgrounds and how to treat people,” Kirsti Simmons, a negotiator for the union, said.
To remedy this, the union is asking for a contract that devotes money and resources toward incentivizing local nurses to work at Down East Community Hospital.
The goal is to “bring some of our local nurses back instead of utilizing travel nurses and to retain the excellent nurses we already have,” Alley explained.
The hospital, however, disagreed with these demands, according to a report published Friday on Maine Public. A hospital spokesperson told the public media outlet that travel nurses are a part of solving staffing issues and that the concerns raised during the rally are “typical union tactics during negotiations and nothing more.”
The union and the hospital will meet to continue negotiations over the contracts Feb. 2.