BANGOR – Attempting to reach an acceptable compromise on wages, health insurance and staffing levels, nurses and administrators at Eastern Maine Medical Center on Friday were preparing to enter another week of thorny contract negotiations.

The nurses’ three-year contract expires Sept. 30.

Union representatives accuse the hospital of jeopardizing patient safety by overworking its nurses. Nurses say they are prepared to go on strike if EMMC doesn’t make substantial concessions, especially in allowing them a direct voice in staffing decisions.

The hospital says the nursing union is more intractable in its demands than usual, in part due to the union’s recent affiliation with the powerful California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee.

“This is a very different tone than we’ve ever seen before,” said Lorraine Rodgerson, vice president and chief nursing officer at the 400-bed hospital.

On Friday, the Maine State Nurses Association was holding informational meetings for members every two hours, beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing until 10 p.m. Meetings also are planned at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon today at the Bangor Motor Inn on Hogan Road.

At the noon meeting Friday, organizer Vanessa Sylvester handed out buttons that read, “I’ll Strike for my Patients and my Profession.”

Registered nurses at EMMC have been unionized for 24 years and have never staged a strike.

“Nobody wants to strike; it’s the last thing anybody wants to do,” said MSNA Unit 1 president Judy Brown, a staff nurse at the hospital. “But we need to get some serious issues resolved. … We need to get back control of our profession.”

Nurses gathered for the meeting described conditions of chronic understaffing and said they were asked repeatedly to work extra shifts to fill in for absent colleagues. Anne Gould, a nurse on the fifth floor of the Grant Tower, said she’s a part-timer scheduled for 27 hours a week. This week she already has agreed to work an extra nine-hour shift and has turned down an additional 12-hour shift.

“I’m exhausted,” she said.

Other nurses from the emergency department, the operating room, the pediatric intensive care unit and other areas all said they frequently worked extra shifts because the hospital refuses to staff appropriately and then has to scramble to fill in the gaps. Often, they said, the staffing gaps go unfilled, leaving nurses in charge of too many patients and jeopardizing the care those patients receive.

Brown said staffing is the central issue in this year’s contract dispute, but nursing salaries, health care benefits and other issues are on the table as well.

At EMMC, Rodgerson said, staffing levels are determined by nursing managers with input from staff nurses.

“Our staffing model is sound,” she said. “Nursing is by definition a challenging profession,” she added, but denied that patient care at EMMC is ever compromised by understaffing.

A group of three staff nurses selected by the hospital to speak with a reporter agreed that hospital nursing is a challenging, stressful and physically demanding profession. But, they said, many nurses find the pace to their liking, and those who don’t can choose to work in less demanding settings. All three nurses are MSNA members, but they said there are many members who disagree with the strident tone being taken by Brown and others in union leadership.

“I’m a member of the union, but I’m also part of this hospital,” said Melissa Day, a nurse on a busy respiratory care unit. “I’m willing to listen to both sides. I’m all about finding that middle ground.”

Rodgerson said she had hoped negotiators would have settled their differences by the end of this week, but that continued disagreement has forced negotiations to continue into next week, and longer if necessary.

“We’re committed to bargaining for as long as we need to,” she said.

MSNA will hold a candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Cascade Park in Bangor.