(Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the results of Thursday night's unionization vote)
The run-up to a now-affirmed labor organization vote at a Prime Healthcare hospital in Maine has led to allegations of foul play in the dismissal and suspension of 20 nurses, accusations of a “coordinated corporate campaign” against the health system and calls from the state’s governor for hospital leadership to back down.
Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC), a 250-bed facility in Lewiston, was acquired along with two other hospitals earlier in February by Prime Healthcare Foundation, the company’s nonprofit charity wing. The deal came with a $150 million, five-year commitment toward facility, service and infrastructure investments as the nationwide system sought a required Certificate of Need (CON) from the state.
Reports from over the summer citing current and former employees noted substantial workforce turnover in the months since, which they said was affecting workloads and creating unsafe staffing situations. Meanwhile, nurses at the hospital have been exploring the formation of a union with the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC).
The election, held Thursday evening, saw hospital nurses vote 204-21 to form a union.
In recent days, however, the Maine AFL-CIO, a state federation of labor unions, accused Prime and CMMC of “blatantly illegal” retaliation with 15 recent firings and five suspensions. Maine AFL-CIO said the actions were triggered by the nurses’ patient advocacy and union advocacy. It added that Prime’s alleged retaliation is part of “an aggressive union busting campaign” they said has played out with similar firings and suspensions at other Prime hospitals like Olympia Fields Hospital (which voted to unionize Wednesday), Saint Francis Hospital and Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital, all in Illinois, which is similarly a hotbed of union and labor organization activity.
“It is appalling that a for-profit corporation like Prime would so brazenly and illegally retaliate against health care workers exercising their legal right to organize and advocate for their patients,” Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney said this week. “… We demand that Prime immediately cease its union busting and reinstate nurses it suspended or fired for exercising their federal right to form a union and speak up for their patients.”
"This is part of a larger pattern of Prime targeting nurses for patient advocacy at hospitals across the country,” MSNA said in a statement.
Prime has flatly disputed that characterization. A CMMC spokesperson, in a statement given to Fierce, said that “no employee has been suspended or terminated because of union activity or for exercising protected rights.” Though the specific personnel matters are confidential, the spokesperson said that employment actions “are based on documented violations of established hospital policies and standards,” and that “union activity does not exempt any employee from the same professional responsibilities.”
The allegations and other union activities referenced by Maine AFL-CIO, the spokesperson said, are some of “the increasingly aggressive tactics” National Nurses United-affiliated union organizers are launching against Prime hospitals, which include “repeated” strike calls and “intimidating and deeply disturbing” distribution of “inflammatory materials” in the residential neighborhoods of company leaders.
“We have also experienced instances in which individuals associated with organizing efforts have allegedly entered hospitals under false pretenses or used access intended for patients or visitors to distribute organizing materials,” the spokesperson said. “We have seen organizing activity conducted in ways that interfere with hospital operations and patient care.”
Janet Mills, Maine’s Democratic governor, weighed in this week on the side of the unions. In a letter to CMMC President and CEO Allen Stefanek sent Wednesday, the governor said that the hospital’s decision to fire or suspend the nurses during a period of widespread labor shortages “is unconscionable.”
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has been reviewing Prime’s compliance with staffing requirements of its CON since this summer’s reported staffing and care quality reports, and the firing and suspensions “only heightens concerns that Prime Healthcare is failing to meet its commitments,” she wrote.
Mills also noted Prime’s position that the moves were unrelated to union activity, but said that their timing just ahead of a union election “raises serious questions about retaliation.”
“I strongly urge you to immediately reinstate every nurse who has been wrongfully fired or suspended,” she wrote. “Failure to do so will make clear to Maine people that Prime Healthcare is prioritizing corporate interests over the commitments it made to the State of Maine to deliver the quality health care that Maine people expect and deserve.”
The CMMC spokesperson did not address Mills’ letter in their comments to Fierce Healthcare.
Following their 91% yes vote, the CMMC nurses said they will "continue to demand the reinstatement of 20 illegally disciplined coworkers" and begin selecting their bargaining team members to begin negotiations on a contract agreement.
“We are beyond thrilled to win our union election. Prime Healthcare thought they could silence us,” said Aaron McDaniel, a registered nurse in the CMMC intensive care unit, said in a release. “But now we are members of National Nurses Organizing Committee and we will use our voices to speak up loudly for our patients.