Just so you know, I if in case there's
media that I haven't spoken to you,
my name is Todd Ricker I'm the lead labor
Rep for The Maine State Nurses Association.
Thank you so much for being here.
This is incredibly important.
Nurses have not been kept safe in
the emergency room at Maine Med
management made some concessions
yesterday that they're talking about
as if it was their plan all along,
or it's what they've been doing all along.
That is nonsense.
The concessions they made
yesterday are brand new.
We're waiting for them to
still be put into place.
You're going to hear from nurses and
you will see in your press packs.
The the abuse,
the brutality that they're experiencing
through workplace violence.
No matter what the stats are,
no matter how hard it is to place
people who are violent no matter what.
The difficulties Army management
has at this hospital,
it is their job to keep people safe.
That's it.
We don't disagree that it's hard to
find placements for some of these folks.
We want them to get the best care possible.
The issue is safety of nurses
when they go to work.
So here's what's going to happen.
We have 4 speakers.
City Councilor Tori Pelletier is with us.
She's going to say a few words
after the third nurse.
Then there's going to be a
delegation that goes into the
hospital to briefly talk to Jeff
Sanders if they can find him.
And then they're going to come back out.
And they're going to report
to us of the three speakers.
You are more than welcome to
talk to any of them. One on one.
Get an interview my phone number if
you need any follow up is in your press
packs on your on the press release.
OK, any questions before we get started.
Alright, great thank you again for
being here. Go ahead Lucy Dawson.
Hi, my name is Lucy Dawson.
UCYDAWSON I'm a nurse in the ER at the
at Maine Medical Center and I am also a
member of our unions bargaining team.
I have been emergency
room nurse for 20 years.
We are here today to be very, very clear.
Maine Medical Center is not keeping
us safe when we are not safe.
Our patients are not safe.
Over the past several months,
multiple emergency room nurses have
been brutally attacked by patients.
We have repeatedly asked our management
department management to make simple
common sense improvements to prevent
workplace violence and keep their
staff and their patients safe.
They have continually refused our requests.
Violent attacks on nurses are increasing,
not decreasing.
Instead of recognizing its
failure to keep us safe,
main Med has continued to
do what is not working.
Worst of all,
main Med is not listening to its nurses.
We told our management that we needed better
staffing to prevent workplace violence,
and they gave us a violence committee.
Committees just produce words,
not immediate action.
It will not keep us out of the
danger we are in right now.
As you know, we are currently bargaining
our first union contract during the
first part of our bargaining session.
Last week, we addressed the issue
of violent attacks on nurses.
Two of our many nurses who have
recently been attacked and injured
by violent patients spoke directly
to the hospital's representatives.
They showed management pictures
of their bruised faces and the
lacerations on their bodies,
and they still refused
are simple improvements.
We also presented a petition signed
by over 90 emergency room nurses.
Giving them our simple common sense
recommendations for safer working conditions.
Two days later,
the Emergency room management.
He told nurses at the hospital would
not take any of these recommendations
and that things will be fine.
But things are not fine.
Things are very far from fine.
We are not fine.
One of our nurses was nearly killed
recently by a violent patient
who tried to choke him to death.
And he is not alone.
We have been hit, bitten,
choked, shoved, kicked,
spit upon and concussed.
We have had broken bones and
continue to face verbal abuse.
These violent and verbal assaults
are contributing to our moral
distress or anxiety or PTSD and
our increasing our staff turnover.
I want everyone to know that
as of yesterday afternoon,
main management finally sat
down with us to listen.
Because of this,
we have now won a commitment for
better staffing and increased
security presence.
It took a long time and too
many nurses being injured,
but this is movement in the right direction.
We call on management to immediately
staff the TD based on the brand new
commitments they've made for us.
There is still more for Maine Med to do.
They need to meet all of the
common sense recommendations we
made to them in our petition,
and they need to listen to us
when we call out for help.
Instead of rejecting the solutions
we now offer for the dangers
we face at work every day.
Thank you.
Perfect.
Thank you all for being here today.
My name is Heather Emons. Let's spell
Heather.
M&MMONS
I'm an emergency room nurse
here at Maine Medical Center.
I've been a nurse for a year,
but I've worked with the
department for over three years.
While Maine Medical Center does its
best to cover up its negligence with
nice words and flowery aspirations.
We are being attacked by violent
patients in the emergency room.
Let me be very clear.
We are not here to blame our patients.
They are sick and they are injured.
They're in an unfamiliar place.
They do not have control over their
environment or even the conditions
that brought them into our care.
We are here for their emergencies
and we are here to help them heal.
But we are not here to suffer the
physical and psychological trauma that
workplace violence inflicts on us.
As emergency room nurses,
we know what we signed up for,
but we also know that main Med can do a
lot more to keep us safe and to prevent.
And to prevent workplace violence.
What nurses and caregivers need is for
this hospital to provide the necessary
resources to staff our department properly.
That means more nurses.
That means more and better security.
That means giving a damn about
the fact that nurses have nearly
been murdered at work.
Just for doing their job.
And if there is anything,
employer has its resources.
Main met is constantly adding floors,
rooms,
department swings and parking garages.
All that's great.
But it. But if even one nurse
is killed in our emergency room,
is any of that worth it?
Should uh, nurses, children or
spouse be robbed of their loved one,
ever coming home again?
Just because Maine Med won't
properly staff our emergency room?
We are not exaggerating when we
tell you that many of us are scared.
To death that this will happen
and sooner rather than later.
And what does this anxiety do to us?
How do you think our moral distress
affects our ability to work to sleep?
To have any respite from our jobs.
Even when we're not there.
This hospital,
like many other hospitals in our state.
And in our country have refused until now
to really hear what nurses are saying.
We are telling them that our meager
efforts to date their meager efforts
today are just not good enough.
And that as much as we love our jobs,
many of us are choosing to walk away.
Rather than to risk injury or worse,
just because we're doing our jobs.
The hospital industry in Maine and
across the United States keeps spinning
their message about a nursing shortage.
That it can do nothing about.
Because there are just not enough nurses,
but that's simply not true.
There are lots and lots of nurses.
Just not very many who are willing
to work in conditions like these,
like the ones that exist in
our emergency department.
Like Lucy, I was thrilled yesterday to
hear that Maine Med wants to do better.
I'm hopeful that finally,
after all of the scratches, bruises,
cuts, black eyes, and other injuries.
That we are going to have more of the
staff we need to care for our patients.
Maine Med must keep the commitment that it
made to emergency room nurses yesterday.
And it must make the same commitment
to all of our nursing colleagues
across the hospital.
Safe staffing for all so safe so all
patients can get the care they need.
Thank you.
Wow.
Hi everyone, my name is
Meg Dion. It's spelled
MEGDIONNE. Good afternoon
and thank you for coming.
My name is Meg Dion.
I'm a nurse here in the emergency
room at Maine Medical Center.
I've been a nurse for seven years.
The problem of workplace violence in
the emergency department at Maine Med
is getting worse, but it's not new.
The issues we face at Mamed
are now at a crisis point,
but they're not unique to the state
of Maine or the rest of the country.
In fact, the threats to our physical
selves and the lack of resources we need
to prevent workplace violence are just
a symptom of a much larger problem.
That symptom being our employer
trusting its own judgment over the
experience and wisdom of frontline
caregivers such as ourselves.
Nurses are the experts on how
workplace violence happens and what
prevention measures will be effective.
And that's why we formed
our Union in the 1st place.
We saw that management of our
hospital could do anything it wanted
to us without any accountability.
Maine medical underpass treat us unfairly.
Discipline us without just cause or
due process and generally disregard
our opinions if it wanted to.
But that has now changed radically,
and for the better.
Collectively,
we nurses are now equal to our employer.
To determine our pay,
our benefits and our working conditions.
We're making historic progress at the
bargaining table on our first union
contracts and as and as powerful as
it is to have Maine Med agree with
us on our bargaining priorities.
We have a long way to go to
ensure our safety,
particularly in the emergency room.
As you know,
by now we put our concerns in
writing in a letter that was
signed by 90 emergency department
nurses here at Maine Med.
We clearly laid out the problem
and dangers we face and also
the solutions that require our
hospital to spend the necessary
resources to keep us safe.
Last Friday, a few days after we
made these demands, our management
told us that they rejected all of
our common sense recommendations
and that they were already doing all
that they could to keep us safe.
But as of yesterday afternoon,
something changed.
Main met is now committing to do
some of the things that we asked for,
like improve staffing and bringing
in more security guards.
Well, these are just some of
the things we needed.
We believe these commitments are
a good start as long as Maine
Med keeps its promises.
But this raises a very important question.
Why is it that this hospital is suddenly
listening to what nurses have to say?
Why is it that when staffing issues
have been a constant complaint in Maine,
Med nurses for many years that the
top management of our hospital
suddenly agrees to make improvements
in our emergency room staffing?
Before we organized our Union
before we started having press
conferences in public before we had
a united voice across our hospital,
none of us would ever imagine we
could win any concessions through
management on patient care needs.
But today things are different,
and that's because we have a Union.
Maine Med has a long way to go to fix
our emergency room and also fix staffing
staffing issues across the entire hospital.
But now we know how to get the hospital
to move in the right direction,
and we'll keep fighting both to make
sure your main Med keeps its word to us.
But to finish the job and improve,
nurse to patient ratios in all
departments across our hospital.
Now to remind me that of these new
commitments to nurse and patient safety,
we are going to deliver a copy
of our signed petition to our
hospitals President Jeff Sanders.
We want him to know that we will,
we take him at his word,
but we also want him to keep it
and to make sure all emergency
room nurses and patients are
safe at Maine Medical Center.
As soon as we have delivered
our demands to Jeff Sanders,
we will return here and report back to you.
Thanks.
Everybody.
I'm Victoria pelletier.
I'm the District 2 city Councilor.
Do you need me to spell my name?
If you don't mind
Victoria.
PELLETIER
so I think it's important not only
as a counselor of this district,
but as a community leader,
a black woman, and someone that is
very familiar with being fighting with
fighting to be seen and supported.
That I stand here in solidarity
with the main bed nurses today.
Because I think quite frankly,
this is a very common issue
that has existed for a very,
very long time,
and while this specific issue
is in regards to management,
once again not listening to the demands
of workers or not doing it in a timely
fashion because I have been made aware
that some of the demands have been met.
It also highlights a larger issue of
power dynamics of lack of respect,
lack of value,
and lack of support for
individuals in the workplace.
It's concerning to me how much upper
management of organizations and
institutions have normalized these
dynamics that exist within decision making.
The workflow of management making
decisions from above for the workers
who are in the trenches is and always
has been a systemic class issue.
In a city that prides itself
on its food and its beverage,
and its health care,
it's important that we shift
the power to the workers,
amplify their voices,
and value their opinions.
The expertise of the most affected needs
to be prioritized and we need to stop
thinking that statements of solidarity,
chicken parm,
or post shift Applause is an adequate
form of support and compensation.
Again, none of this is new.
The hierarchy of workplaces takes class,
race, ethnicity, gender,
ability into consideration
and utilizes existing,
oppressive tactics to work against
the employees that are faced with
the most challenging physically,
emotionally,
and mentally demanding job duties.
The system is working exactly
the way that it's supposed to,
and until someone stands up
and refuses to perform until
workplace conditions improve,
we will continue to be
underpaid and undervalued.
The nurses of Maine Med deserve a
safe and supportive environment
with access to decision making
tables on every issue that will
directly impact their quality
of life within the workplace.
The workers are the backbone of
this city and deserve a safe,
well compensated working environment
as they continue to treat the
most vulnerable of Portland.
And if you won't do it for them,
they will build their own table
and they will do it themselves.
You need them.
We need them and a lack of
support for their demands,
especially in a time with the pandemic,
continues to infect thousands,
is negligent and unacceptable.
So while I am very excited to hear
that some of the demands have been met,
I want to make sure that this
is something that's consistent
and we don't need to get to this
point in order to be heard.
Shift the power.
Dismantle the oppressive management
structure and stand in solidarity
with those who work extremely
hard to keep us safe and healthy.
Thank you.