BANGOR – Members of the Eastern Maine Medical Center nurses union gathered at the hospital’s Mason Auditorium on Friday to begin reviewing and voting on a tentative labor contract with their employer.

The voting, which ran from 1 to 8 p.m. Friday, will continue from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, according to the Maine State Nurses Association Web site. The union’s bargaining team recommends the 870 nurses approve the agreement, which requires a majority vote and could resolve a labor dispute and avert the 24-hour nurses strike that had been set for next week.

The deal also requires ratification by the hospital’s board of trustees.

The outcome of the nurses’ vote will be announced after 9:30 p.m. Saturday on the Maine State Nurses Association Web site, according to Judy Brown, a staff nurse and president of the EMMC nurses union, Unit 1 of the Maine State Nurses Association.

Brown declined to comment further on the tentative contract, which was announced Thursday night after a long day of negotiations at the Ramada Inn. A federal mediator facilitated the talks.

The nurses’ most recent three-year contract expired at midnight Sept. 30, and has not been renewed. Since early September, EMMC nurses have vocally expressed their views that the hospital is chronically understaffed on most patient units. Contract negotiations have revolved around staffing levels, wages and health insurance.

Brown confirmed Thursday that the tentative agreement includes language about a professional practice committee the nurses had requested to give them significant input into staffing levels and other decisions. The committee reportedly has been a source of conflict in the negotiations.

After failing in previous negotiations, the union issued a 10-day notice last weekend that it had scheduled a 24-hour strike to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17.

The hospital had planned to bring in replacement nurses from the U.S. Nursing Corp. of Denver, an agency that specializes in providing temporary nurses to hospitals whose employees are on strike.

After Thursday’s apparent accord, the union rescinded its strike notice, pending ratification.

On Friday, EMMC spokeswoman Jill McDonald called the tentative agreement “a compromise position that feels good to everybody.”

“We’re hopeful that our nurses will ratify the tentative agreement this weekend and we’re looking forward to working closely with them in the future just as we have in the past,” McDonald said. If the nurses approve the contract Saturday, it will go before the hospital’s board of directors for a vote as soon as possible, McDonald said.