Maine AFL-CIO Demands Reinstatement of 20 CMMC Nurses Illegally Fired or Suspended for Patient Advocacy and Organizing
The Maine AFL-CIO is demanding that the for-profit healthcare corporation Prime Healthcare reinstate 20 Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) nurses it illegally fired or suspended for patient advocacy in a blatantly illegal act of retaliation for forming a union. CMMC nurses in Lewiston recently launched a union drive to organize with the Maine State Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC). As of Friday, the company had fired 14 nurses and suspended six others.
"These numbers continue to rapidly grow as Prime Healthcare is illegally and sweepingly targeting nurses at CMMC for advocating for their patients, patient care, and improvements at their hospital," MSNA wrote in a statement. "This is part of a larger pattern of Prime targeting nurses for patient advocacy at hospitals across the country."
The CMMC nurses are scheduled to hold their union election on Thursday September 24. However, CMMC and its parent company Prime Healthcare are running an aggressive union busting campaign and have suspended eight nurses for organizing their union.
“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,” said Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney. “These dedicated nurses are organizing for a stronger voice in their workplace to effectively push for improvements in working conditions and patient care. 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.”
Nurses across the country are organizing and speaking up systemwide against Prime Healthcare because Prime endangers patients and nurses by putting profits above all else. Prime has responded with similar illegal, retaliatory action against nurses in other states as well.
On Tuesday, CMMC nurses held an informational picket in solidarity with nurse colleagues within the Prime Healthcare hospital system who are on strike on the same day at Olympia Fields Hospital in Olympia Fields, Ill. to protest the suspension of six nurses at Olympia Fields. Like their striking coworkers in Illinois, CMMC nurses also want to unionize and will vote later this month. The CMMC nurses were joined in solidarity by several unions including IAM Local S6, Ironworkers 852. Maine Service Employees Association and others.
Since the suspension of the Olympia Fields nurses, two of the suspended nurses have been fired as well as a nurse at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill., and three nurses at Central Maine Medical Center had been suspended at the time of the rally — all for speaking up for their patients. Earlier this summer, Prime Healthcare management fired six nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago. After the rally in Lewiston seven more CMMC nurse leaders were suspended for participating in union activity. On Thursday, CMMC fired seven of the nurses it had previously suspended. CMMC Intensive Care Unit nurse Aaron McDaniel told Maine Public that he was suspended last weekend, along with three other nurses in different units.
"My coworkers are up there right now. They are tired. They are hungry. And they have two patients who they need to keep alive. And they have one less nurse to do it," McDaniel said.
This sudden loss of income has created immediate hardship for CMMC nurses, leaving these nurses facing uncertainty at a time when basic daily needs cannot wait. They are now dealing with the stress of trying to keep up with essential expenses while navigating what comes next. If you can, please donate to this fund to support the nurses who have been illegally retaliated against.
Support CMMC nurses who have been illegally retaliated against
The funds raised will help cover housing, food, transportation, and other basic expenses so these nurses can get through this difficult period with a little more stability and support. All funds raised will be equally divided among the nurses who have requested assistance as of the distribution date.
Nurses and health care workers at three Prime hospitals in two states held sympathy strikes on Sept. 15 in solidarity with their striking RN colleagues at Olympia Fields, who are protesting nurses who were suspended or fired : RNs at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev. and West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif., and nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, Calif. Also, nurses at Saint Mary of Nazareth in Chicago will hold an informational picket on Sept. 15. In total, more than 2,800 nurses and health care workers will be either striking or picketing on Sept. 15.