HOULTON, Maine — Patients waiting in hallways and babies being delivered in the emergency department pushed Houlton Regional Hospital registered nurses to call a two-day strike that will begin Nov. 18, according to the Maine State Nurses union.
The nurses, represented by the Maine State Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee, notified the hospital administration of the strike on Nov. 7.
In September, registered nurses at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent and Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton authorized bargaining teams to call a strike if their contract negotiations with management didn’t move forward.
HRH nurses have been negotiating for over a year for a new contract. The previous contract expired on Nov. 30, 2024. A continued lack of response by Houlton hospital administrators led to the decision to call next week’s strike, according to nurse representatives.
Hospital administrators on Monday did not respond to a reporter seeking comment.
In a September statement, Jeff Zewe, the chief executive officer at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent and Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton, said a strike is unnecessary because of new services and staffing plans at both hospitals.
In late May, executives at Northern Maine Medical Center — Zewe and Chief Financial Officer Aaron Teachout — took over the management of the Houlton hospital through a one-year agreement. The Fort Kent administrators are in charge of operations at both hospitals, although they operate as independent entities under the direction of their respective boards of trustees.
“This is a close community; our patients are our neighbors,” Tenille Nason, emergency department RN, said in a release. “We have seen over the last five years the emergency department consistently filled with sicker patients. To provide optimal, timely care, sicker patients require additional staffing, but staffing has not changed. We need to do better for our community.”