Following negotiations Sunday, employees voted 195-97 to postpone a threatened strike for at least 30 days, union organizer Gabe Kramer said.

"The hospital said at 1:30 this afternoon that they would recognize the union’s right to represent the nurses - that’s something the hospital said they would never do until this afternoon," Kramer said Sunday. "With that in mind, over two-thirds of the members voted to postpone the strike and sit down with the hospital and negotiate."

In March, the nurses voted 46-45 to join the Service Workers Employees International Union. However, the hospital contested the vote, saying that two of the ballots were tainted.

Barry K. Tourigny, vice president of human resources at the hospital, said in preparation for the strike the hospital stopped taking new patients on Wednesday, which cost the hospital about $150,000 per day.

Although hospital administrators decided late last week to keep the hospital open if the strike occurred, only 12 patients were in the hospital over the weekend compared to about 70 before the strike talk began, Tourigny said.