Nurses at Lewiston’s Central Maine Medical Center move to unionize for a greater voice in hospital conditions
Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston is pictured March 25. Nurses ast the hospital are exploring unionizing. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)
Nurses at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston announced Monday they have filed for an election to join the Maine State Nurses Association, a union representing 4,000 nurses and caregivers across the state.
Filing to the National Labor Relations Board was the group’s first public act to form a union. They are advocating for safer staffing, better equipment and nurse retention.
Christina Beckwith, registered nurse on the vascular access team at CMMC, said unionizing would give nurses a voice in patient care.
Central Maine Healthcare, which owns the Lewiston hospital and facilities across western Maine, was acquired earlier this year by Prime Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit subsidiary of Prime, a California-based health system with dozens of hospitals across the country.
Related
Central Maine hospitals acquired by California group that pledges to invest $150M
Nurses at some of those facilities have criticized Prime’s workplace conditions.
“We are at the bedside, and we know what our patients need,” Beckwith said in an email. “We want safe care for our patients.”
Advertisement
“For patient care to improve,” she said, “our working conditions need to improve, too.”
The Maine State Nurses Association is affiliated with National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the country.
More than 40 nurses and union supporters rallied across the street from CMMC on Monday night. Attendees wore red shirts and held signs that read “Prime RNs united for our patients.”
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, hospital officials said that Prime is giving Central Maine Healthcare the support to recover from financial hardship.
**“**Rather than allowing the turnaround to take hold, the union is attempting to take advantage of this critical transition period at an organization that has only recently been rescued from years of financial instability and is now receiving unprecedented investment.”
Nurses at two Prime facilities in Illinois also filed for a union election Monday. Prime nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago voted in June to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United.
Advertisement
National Nurses United reported that Prime fired six Saint Mary of Nazareth nurses “in retaliation for union activity,” prompting nurses to hold a one-day strike. A Saint Mary of Nazareth spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times that the hospital has not retaliated against employees for exercising their rights.
Four more nursing strikes are planned for Sept. 3 at Prime-owned facilities in California, Illinois and Nevada, covering more than 2,200 nurses and healthcare workers.
Beckwith said she is proud to join the labor movement in Maine and stand with Prime nurses across the country.
“Unionizing gives us the power to make demands and negotiate a contract that will hold Prime accountable,” Beckwith said.
Central Maine Healthcare officials said the organization is actively fixing problems, not ignoring them.
“At this critical juncture, while we respect our nurses’ rights to have their voices heard, we firmly believe that the union is placing its own interests of building up its membership, financial resources and political clout ahead of what is best for our nurses, our patients or the communities we are working to protect and rebuild.”
Once the NLRB reviews the union’s petition for an election and confirms certain requirements are met, the process can take from a few weeks to a couple months, according to the NLRB.
Copy the Story Link
Tagged: health care, lewiston maine
Hannah Kaufman covers health and access to care in central and western Maine. She is on the first health reporting team at the Maine Trust for Local News, looking at state and federal changes through the. More by Hannah Kaufman
