While the nursing staff of Maine Medical Center struggle to provide the best service they can with limited resources, the hospital administration is spending tens of thousands of dollars on anti-union consultants to thwart their cause. These essential workers have earned their place at the table and deserve to be heard by the hospital administration.
If the administration is truly concerned about keeping costs down, maybe they should look at their own salaries. The CEO of MaineHealth, William L. Caron Jr., pulled down $1,676,435, according to the nonprofit’s 990 filed for the year 2019 and found on guidestar.org. That same year, Richard W. Petersen, MaineHealth president, took home $1,666,813.
They might rationalize their inflated salaries by claiming that their work is highly technical and complicated or that they need to offer competitive salaries to attract the best talent. But couldn’t these arguments apply to the nursing staff? Shouldn’t our health care system offer them the highest salaries and best working conditions also?
To put things in perspective, there are many who do equally complicated tasks who earn a lot less. Gov. Janet Mills earns a paltry $70,000 a year. A Navy admiral at the O-10 pay level earns $200,345.16 as of this year. University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy made $350,000 in 2019. President Biden makes only $400,000 per year.
Something is clearly out of kilter here and needs to be fixed. We can start by supporting our nurses at Maine Medical Center.
Boothbay
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