An effort to organize facilities workers at a Bangor hospital failed last month after workers who would have been in the unit voted against unionizing.
Facilities mechanics at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center voted 17-10 against joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 4 in Lisbon Falls, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which certified the election results on Sept. 12.
Some 28 people were eligible to vote in the election, but one ballot was challenged.
The machinists’ union did not respond to a request for comment.
“We will continue to work together with our employees to hear their concerns, and work collaboratively to ensure a continued safe and rewarding employment experience,” said Suzanne Spruce, a spokesperson for EMMC parent organization Northern Light Health.
The failed effort to unionize EMMC facilities mechanics follows a handful of successful efforts to organize workers at other Maine hospitals in recent years.
Radiology technicians at Calais Regional Hospital voted to unionize with the Maine State Nurses Association in 2019.
The Maine State Nurses Association also now represents 2,000 nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland after nurses there voted to unionize in April 2021. The association announced late last month that it had ratified a bargaining contract for the Portland nurses after more than a year of negotiations with hospital executives.
The new three-year contract guarantees members a 7 percent wage increase in the first year, with 4 percent raises in the second and third years, for a 15 percent total pay raise during those three years.
Nurses at Acadia Hospital, another Northern Light health center in Bangor, announced this week they had filed to unionize as Acadia Nurses United with the American Federation of Teachers. That bargaining unit, if approved, would represent more than 100 nurses.
An election hearing is set for Nov. 10.
The Maine State Nurses Association already represents 900 nurses at EMMC.
