Registered nurses and their community allies held a rally today to celebrate their commanding union election victory last night at Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) in Lewiston, Maine, announced Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country. 

In the final weeks before the election, CMMC (and its owner, Prime Healthcare) fired 15 union supporters and suspended five nurses for speaking up and advocating for their patients.

“You take on one of us, you take on all of us,” said fired CMMC nurse Katie Grinnell, RN. “Prime and CMMC made a bet that we’d scatter to the wind when they started firing nurses for our patient advocacy. But last night, they lost that bet. 

“Their cruelty toward us just made us stronger,” said Grinnell. “We are more determined than ever to win improvements to the lives of nurses and patients at our hospital. Prime should not profit off the backs of us nurses, at the expense of our patients.”

CMMC was acquired by Prime Healthcare earlier this year. Since Prime began operating CMMC, nurses have cited increased patient loads, a lack of necessary patient care supplies (like clean bed linens), and unilateral cuts to nurses’ pay and benefits. The union victory means that Prime and CMMC must now bargain with the nurses over the terms and conditions of their employment. Nurses say they voted to join the union so they could have a real voice in decisions that affect patient care in the hospital.

“We feel the love and support of our community,” said Jesse Buck, RN at CMMC nurse in the cardiac intermediate care unit. “We are so grateful to all of our neighbors and friends who have reached out to let us know they’re pulling for us. And we appreciate so much all of the elected officials and candidates who have publicly stood with us so far. With this incredible election victory, we can now begin to rebuild our hospital for the benefit of everyone.”

The new union members at CMMC will now prepare to bargain their first union contract.

Maine State Nurses Association is part of National Nurses Organizing Committee, representing 4,000 nurses and other caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing labor union of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide.