Houlton Nurses Strike for Safe Staffing and Patient Care

PHOTO: Houlton Regional Hospital nurses on strike Tuesday.

Dozens of nurses with the Maine State Nurses Association/NNU struck Houlton Regional Hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday to protest management’s refusal to improve staffing and patient safety. They were joined on the picket line by nurses from Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent, Maine Medical Center in Portland and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor as well as members of Teamsters Local 340 and the Orono Professional Firefighters (IAFF 3106). US Senate candidate Graham Platner and gubernatorial candidates Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows also joined the picket.

Please take a moment now to send hospital CEO Jeff Zewe an email – STOP BEING A BULLY and negotiate a fair contract with nurses!

The 55 nurses have been fighting for a new contract since the previous one expired on Nov. 30, 2024. Short staffing has plagued the emergency department, operating room, and acute care units. Nurses say that additional patients are assigned to the acute care unit without enough staffing to handle them. Without enough skilled nursing support, quality patient care is compromised, especially for patients with more complex health conditions. The Houlton nurses are among the lowest paid in the state, according to MSNA.

"We really are fighting for safe staffing, good quality care. It's so important to us. We're such a small community. We all love it here and we just want the best for our community,” said Taylor Flint, a registered nurses in the  Emergency Department, according to WGME.

The emergency department nurses are asking for one additional shift per week so that three RNs are present at all times to deal with our patients’ needs. The nurses say the hospital had agreed tentatively to add this position prior to Jeff Zewe taking over as CEO. But the hospital has reneged on that agreement and now wants to be able to reduce ED staffing.

Nurses also say that the abrupt closure of the community’s labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum department in May has required some babies to be delivered in the emergency department, adding to wait times and the staff burden there. Labor-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson showed up in his old white van to show solidarity with the nurses. 

“Whenever I’ve been sick or in the hospital, it’s the nurses who’ve had my back. Now, I get the chance to have theirs,” Jackson posted on social media from Houlton.

U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner was on the picket line bright and early at 6:45am and made a great video about the nurses’ struggle.

“What the nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital are doing takes real guts,” Platner said. “They’re standing up because they know the stakes — for their coworkers, for their patients, and for this whole community. And when people who give every ounce of themselves say something’s wrong, our job is simple: stand with them. Show up. Link arms. Make it clear they’re not fighting alone.”