April, 29 2021, 12:00am EDT
By Huge 57% Margin, Maine Medical Nurses Vote to Form First Ever Union with Maine State Nurses Association/NNU
"This is a dream come true, to bring us the unified strength we need to improve patient care conditions and workplace standards at Maine Med."
WASHINGTON
By a huge 57 percent margin, registered nurses at Maine's largest hospital, Maine Medical Center (MMC) are joining the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United.
The Maine Med RNs voted 1,001 to 750 in a mail ballot election counted by the National Labor Relations Board, for form their first ever union. MSNA will now represent 2,000 RNs at Maine Med, the Scarborough Surgery Center and the MMC Brighton Campus in Portland.
"It's a new day for nurses and patients across Maine," said MSNA President Cokie Giles, RN. "I am thrilled for my colleagues at Maine Med, for their resolve to win a collective voice for their patients and their community. And I look forward to working with you for the future of high-quality patient care for all Maine residents."
Giles, who is also a vice president of NNU, called on Maine Med's administration to "respect the democratic vote of the RNs, and begin work with them to negotiate a first collective bargaining agreement that would be in the best interests of the hospital, the nurses, and the community."
"This is a dream come true, to bring us the unified strength we need to improve patient care conditions and workplace standards at Maine Med," said Maine Med Mother Baby RN Jackie Fournier.
NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN praised the RNs. "Your courage to stand up and speak out for your patients and community in the face of the most serious threat to your own health and safety amid the worst global pandemic in a century has inspired nurses across the country. We could not be more impressed with your accomplishment."
"We are proud to welcome Maine Med nurses to the NNU family," said NNU President Jean Ross, RN. "Your votes, your voices today will be heard by nurses coast to coast. Like your NNU colleagues in recent months in North Carolina and North Dakota, you have sent an unmistakable signal that nurses can win for their patients, their families, and their colleagues anywhere."
With the huge organizing win at Maine Medical Center coming on the heels of the organizing victory for 1,800 nurses in North Carolina in September, and other recent union wins, NNU reinforced its role as is one of the fastest growing unions in the U.S. Overall, NNU represents more than 170,000 RNs from coast to coast.
The RNs cited growing concerns about inadequate staffing, mandatory scheduling that requires nurses to rotate between working days and nights that they say leads to burnout and fatigue, lack of meal and break relief, assignments to work in units for which they do not have clinical experience and proper orientation, and other workplace improvements and standards.
Noting how the nurses lost another attempt to form a union two decades ago, Float Pool RN Julia Koger said that, since then "we've fallen behind on staffing, working conditions, and other benefits. This has only contributed to worsening retention. Meanwhile, nurses at union hospitals have been able to protect what they have and bargain for improvements. Nurses and patients at Maine Med deserve nothing less than that same right to bargain collectively."
"MaineHealth has grown tremendously in recent years, but sometimes it feels like they've 'outgrown' bedside nurses' clinical judgement," said Maine Med Ambulatory Surgical Unit RN CJ Morse. "With a union and a union contract, RNs will have a real voice and we can hold MaineHealth accountable to our perspective as patient advocates."
"As registered nurses, we can't do our jobs properly without support from CNAs, techs, housekeeping, and so many others," said Schola Mwangi-Walker, RN in the Inpatient Medical Psychiatry Unit. "Having a union will empower us to be strong advocates for all frontline staff at Maine Med. My previous hospital was a union hospital, and we always had the ability to advocate for our staff."
Maine Med RNs also expressed thanks to Gov. Janet Mills, Senate President Troy Jackson, Rep. Michael Sylvester, the Maine State AFL-CIO, and many patients and community members for their words of encouragement during the campaign. "Your incredible support touched our hearts and encouraged us. It gave us hope for what we could achieve for our patients, ourselves, our colleagues, and as a model for all nurses in Maine," said Emergency Department RN Michelle Burke.
In mid-March, Jackson sent a letter to hospital officials signed by more than 60 other state lawmakers, criticizing the aggressive harassment of the nurses by hospital managers and the high-priced Florida anti-union consultants.
In a commentary in the Portland Press Herald March 19, Jackson wrote, "Like most workers looking to organize, the nurses aren't asking for much. All they want is fair wages, better hours, safe working conditions and a seat at the table. They're not alone. Workers across Maine and the U.S. are joining or forming unions because of the pandemic... It's about having the power to speak out when things get tough and push back against policies that lead to burnout and high turnover rates. This is especially true for health care."
Under the banner "Friends of Maine Med Nurses" community supporters issued their own public letter in March. "Nurses give their all. They are the constant at Maine Med. They are the backbone... Nurses stand up for us and our loved ones, they answer our questions, they heal our kids, they explain procedures or medicines we struggle to understand, and they become part of our families ... They put patients first, but too often they are not given the respect they deserve. Nurses advocate for us. The stronger our nurses feel, the better our health care will be."
National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in US history.
(240) 235-2000LATEST NEWS
Sanders: 'The Netanyahu Gov't Should Not Receive Another Penny from US'
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Following the passing of the U.S. government appropriations bill early Saturday morning, Senator Bernie Sanders said:
I voted NO on the appropriations bill that the Senate passed last night. While hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children face starvation in Gaza, this bill actually prohibits funding to UNWRA, the key United Nations aid agency delivering life-saving humanitarian support. This will only intensify the already horrific situation in Gaza. This bill also provides another $3.3 billion in U.S. military aid for Netanyahu’s right-wing government to continue this barbaric war. The Netanyahu government should not receive another penny from U.S. taxpayers.
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As India's right-wing government cracks down on opposition ahead of next month's general elections, Amnesty International on Friday urged authorities to "stop weaponizing the criminal justice system to intimidate and harass" political candidates, activists, and others.
Protests broke out in the capital New Delhi and other Indian cities after police on Thursday arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, an opposition leader from the Aam Aadmi Party, over corruption allegations AAP members say are politically motivated. Two other AAP leaders were previously arrested in connection with the same case, which involves the alleged favoring of certain alcohol vendors and illegal campaign financing.
Authorities also froze the bank accounts of another leading opposition party, the Indian National Congress, over a tax dispute that dates back to 2018. Party leader Sonia Gandhi accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party of perpetrating "a systematic effort to cripple the party financially."
“They want to know we are corrupt like them, which is not the case.” – AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar on the BJP’s crackdown on opposition politicians.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was arrested just today on charges of corruption.
The India Report: https://t.co/rxPr6zKnWx pic.twitter.com/P3eSbxVTVm
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 21, 2024
Gandhi, Kejriwal and others have repeatedly accused of Modi's government of misusing federal agencies and resources to repress opposition figures as elections loom. The BJP denies the allegations.
"The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government's crackdown on peaceful dissent and opposition has now reached a crisis point," Amnesty International India board chair Aakar Patel said in a statement.
"The authorities have repeatedly exploited and weaponized various financial and terrorism laws to systematically crack down on human rights defenders, activists, critics, nonprofit organizations, journalists, students, academics, and political opposition," Patel added. "The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal and the freezing of Indian National Congress' bank accounts a few weeks before India holds its general elections show the authorities' blatant failure to uphold the country's international human rights obligations."
Patel continued:
What we are witnessing is a brutal crackdown on human rights including through the misuse of central investigative and financial agencies, attacks on peaceful protests, arbitrary arrests, use and export of invasive spyware for unlawful surveillance, [and] systematic discrimination against religious minorities to feed into their majoritarian Hindutva politics and targeted suspension of opposition leaders from the Parliament who dare to hold the authorities to account.
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On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing on the situation in India.
The commission noted that in recent years, as Modi and the BJP have consolidated power, "concerns about human rights abuses in India have grown" over "a wide range of significant rights issues, including restrictions on religious and press freedoms, violence or threats of violence targeting members of national/racial/ethnic and religious minorities, harassment of and restrictions on civil society and human rights organizations, corruption, and lack of accountability."
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"House Republicans had a bad day," said one reporter, listing challenges and changes to leadership as a government shutdown looms.
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The U.S. House of Representatives started a two-week recess on Friday, but not before a series of events that provoked fresh declarations of what has become a familiar phrase over the past few years: "Republicans in disarray."
Before leaving Capitol Hill, House members passed a spending package intended to prevent a partial government shutdown that could still occur unless the Senate acts. Fewer than two dozen Democrats and over 100 Republicans opposed the bill. Democratic opposition was largely related to Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, far-right Republicans like Texas Congressman Chip Roy have made comments like, "Everyone that I know and trust about the border, about overall spending, see it as a complete and total failure and a capitulation by Republicans. And leadership worked the deal, so it's on leadership."
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) not only opposed the package but also filed a motion to vacate, hoping to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—which would only require a simple majority if it came up for a vote.
The \u201cRepublican-controlled\u201d House just passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill that doesn\u2019t secure our border, but funds full term abortion and trans ideology on our youth.\n\nI filed a Motion to Vacate because the House needs a Speaker who\u2019s able to win for Republicans and our\u2026— (@)
House Republicans elected Johnson to the leadership role in late October, after ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—who then opted to leave office at the end of last year—and rejecting three other candidates for the post: Reps. Tom Emmer (D-Minn.), Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Noting that Greene filed a regular motion rather than a privileged one, meaning it could be referred to a committee, "where it would likely languish," NBC Newsreported Friday:
Greene told reporters that her motion to vacate was "more of a warning than a pink slip," saying she does not want to "throw the House into chaos," like the three and a half weeks that the chamber was without a speaker when McCarthy, her close ally, was ousted.
"I'm not saying that it won't happen in two weeks or it won't happen in a month or who knows when. But I am saying the clock has started. It's time for our conference to choose a new speaker," she said.
Johnson's October election led Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)—who filed the motion to vacate targeting McCarthy—to declare that "MAGA is ascendant," a reference to the "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the November election.
While Gaetz voted against the spending package on Friday, he also said that "if we vacated this speaker we'd end up with a Democrat. You know, when I vacated the last one, I made a promise to the country that we would not end up with a Democrat speaker and I was right. I couldn't make that promise again today."
Asked if he thinks Johnson's job is safe, Gaetz responded, "It is."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also responded dismissively when questioned about Greene's motion on Friday, tellingPunchbowl News, "She's a joke."
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However, Johnson's limited control over the House is dwindling. Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who backed the spending bill, revealed that he is resigning from his seat effective April 19 after previously saying that he would not seek reelection. Friday was also the last day of Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who announced earlier this month that he would step down from his seat.
The Washington Post noted Friday that "Buck and Gallagher are the sixth and seventh members of the House who are quitting midterm simply to leave for the private sector, a trend we dubbed 'the Great Resignation' last weekend. It's also the highest number of lawmakers quitting public service altogether in at least 40 years."
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In yet another disruption to the chamber's GOP leadership, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas)—who announced last year that she wouldn't seek reelection—wrote in a Friday letter to Johnson that she plans to step down as chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
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