Maine State Nurses Association

Large group of nurss with raised fists hold banner "Bedside Nurses Support Ratios"

Maine State Nurses Association campaign for safe staffing ratios

Maine nurses are standing up for nurse and patient safety by supporting L.D. 1639, “The Maine Quality Care Act”. Our union strongly supports this bill, sponsored by state Senator Stacy Brenner, RN.

See our campaign page »

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Maine Medical Center nurses win first contract tentative agreement!

Fighting for safe staffing in Maine

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Maine Med updates

Large group of Maine nurses demanding justice for Debora

Debora Kapisha, RN, freed from ICE custody, returns home

Debora Kapisha, the registered nurse detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently at Boston Logan International Airport, has been released from ICE custody and is on her way home to Maine. Kapisha, a medical-surgical nurse at Maine Medical Center (Maine Med) in Portland, is a member of Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the country’s largest nurses union.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

August 6, 2026

200+ Maine nurses, community members, and elected officials rallied outside Maine Medical Center to demand ICE release colleague Debora Kapisha, RN

Hundreds of union registered nurses, community allies, and elected officials rallied in Portland, Maine to demand the release of Debora Kapisha, RN, a nurse at Maine Medical Center who is currently detained by ICE. They scored a major first victory by successfully blocking her transfer from Massachusetts to Louisiana, where she would have been far from her family, legal counsel, and support network.

August 5, 2026

Many MSNA/NNOC nurses holding banner "Safe Staffing Saves Lives"

Maine Medical Center nurses demand immediate release of their colleague from ICE detention

Nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine are staging an emergency protest Wednesday, Aug. 5 to demand the immediate release of an RN colleague who is being detained by ICE despite the fact that she is legally authorized to live and work in the country while she waits for her asylum case from Zambia to be processed.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

August 4, 2026

Group of nurses on picket line holding signs

Nurses to strike at Houlton Regional Hospital starting May 26

Registered nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton, Maine, will begin a four-day strike on Tuesday, May 26, to protest management’s refusal to address their deep concerns about emergency department staffing and its impact on patient care.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

May 22, 2026

Union nurses to be joined by Graham Platner, local electeds, unions, and community leaders for health care town hall

Registered nurses with the National Nurses Organizing Committee / National Nurses United are hosting a community town hall with Graham Platner on Wednesday, May 20, in Portland, Maine, to discuss the current state of health care and what it would take to truly transform our system.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

May 18, 2026

Portland nurses win new three-year contract

After nearly four months of bargaining, nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland voted on Jan. 7 to ratify a new union contract that provides many new safety measures for patients and nurses, among other improvements.

March 26, 2026

Houlton nurses strike for safe staffing

Registered nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton, Maine, held a two-day strike on Nov. 18 and 19 to protest management’s refusal to address their deep concerns about staffing and patient care.

January 13, 2026

Knowledge is Power

Rounding is an opportunity to talk to people face-to-face in their unit, distribute information, and organize. Members of the Professional Practice Committee often round on the same day as their monthly meeting. “Information is power. During rounding we can encounter issues in real time,” said Erin Oberson, RN in the labor and delivery unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. “Without rounding, we would not have found out about charge nurses in a few units being asked to do additional documentation about staffing.”

November 3, 2025

RNs protest obstetrics closures

Vital obstetrics services are in crisis in Maine. On March 27, Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, a town about an hour southeast of Bangor, announced that it would be closing its obstetrics (OB) department on July 1. A week later, Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton, announced that it would be shutting down its Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum (LDRP) unit on May 2.

July 9, 2025

Maine nurses vindicated

The Maine Department of Labor issued a citation in late February to Northern Maine Medical Center (NMMC) for regulatory violations, including misclassifying nurses as subcontractors, failing to pay nurses overtime, failing to pay nurses their wages in a timely manner, and requiring nurses to sign contracts that exempted NMMC from Maine’s labor laws.

April 11, 2025

Maine State Nurses Association