I am a proud Maine Medical Center nurse. I have worked at MMC for 30 years. I’ve literally grown up there from student nurse to nurse mentor. I’ve worked in the float pool, in the special care unit and in cardiac care for the last 15 years. This has been an especially hard time for nurses in every hospital across the country.
I’ve been quietly watching, listening and thinking about the pros and cons of a union.
The union first approached nurses in November 2020, during a very stressful time for all of us. It has been unnerving to walk through the parking garage at the end of a long shift, after dealing with COVID, to be stopped and hounded by a union representative about how horribly MMC treats us when, in fact, it is quite the opposite.
Let me tell you why I and many of my nursing peers do not support bringing in a union to the hospital. MMC has been ranked as the best hospital in Maine the last two years by US News without a union. The outstanding response by leadership to keep the hospital staff safe during this pandemic didn’t require a union. We have the best overall compensation package in the state, which includes pay, pensions, paid time off, health care and more. There were times in March of last year when we had very few patients admitted to the 40-bed cardiac care unit. Wanting to protect us, the extra staff were given paid leave to go home to reduce their exposure to COVID in the hospital. We didn’t have to use our own paid time off. This was standard protocol for us – if we had to quarantine, we were told to stay home and we were paid. If we had questionable symptoms, the answer was the same. Unlike so many employees in and out of health care, we were paid to make the right decision. If we were exposed and had to quarantine, we were told to stay home. The planning and precautions around personal protective equipment couldn’t have been any better.
We have great teamwork that creates the best patient care and support for all the nurses and certified nursing assistants. MMC is a Magnet recognition program designee. This designation recognizes nursing excellence with lower nurse turnover, higher patient satisfaction and better clinical outcomes. To nurses, Magnet recognition means education and development through every career stage, which leads to greater autonomy at the bedside. To patients, it means the very best care, delivered by nurses who are supported to be the very best that they can be.
If someone is not living up to the standards in nursing, they are removed. A union does protect all employees – even those you wouldn’t want to give you care. Performance becomes secondary to seniority.
I am fortunate to work with people like Laurie Burton, nursing director at MMC, who recognizes and supports the need for work-home balance. We can swap shifts with our peers without extra administrative paperwork. Our relationship with our management is built on trust and respect. It breaks my heart to hear all the negativity in the media about MMC being used to support a union. The bottom line is many of us feel like we are so lucky to work here with an incredibly supportive staff and administration – why would we pay union dues that would give us benefits we already have and make the patient a secondary consideration?
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