Houlton Regional Hospital nurses plan 4-day strike next week

Unionized nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital plan a four-day walkout next week to protest the lack of a contract.

The hospital received a 10-day notice from bargaining unit nurses of their intent to strike starting Tuesday, May 26, according to Houlton Regional officials.

This is the second strike in six months by the facility’s registered nurses represented by the Maine State Nurses Association, part of the National Nurses Organizing Committee. In November, about 55 nurses picketed outside the hospital as part of a two-day strike over the alleged refusal of the hospital administration to improve staffing, nurse retention and contract negotiations.

“We are extremely disappointed with this action by the nurses and their union,” hospital administrators said in a statement to the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday.

The nurses have been working without a contract since the previous one expired on Nov. 30, 2024. While hospital officials pointed to a 21% salary increase contract offer, the issue is not money, the union said.

The continued sticking points involve registered nurses’ concerns about understaffing in the emergency department and intermediate care unit, and also that the hospital wants to remove the safe staffing language defining patient care standards that has been in previous contracts, according to the Maine State Nurses Association.

Such worries are not just a local issue. Nationally, more than half of nurses surveyed had considered leaving their positions because of unsafe staffing ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American Nurses Foundation.

Nurses are asking the Houlton hospital to retain the safe staffing language in the existing contract and to add an additional nurse in the emergency department and in the intermediate care unit based on patient needs.

“It is unfortunate that the union continues to make allegations that the hospital staffing is unsafe,” HRH officials said. “Nursing leadership works extremely hard every day and every shift to ensure that safe staffing is achieved. Due to this diligence, the nurse-to-patient assignments are well within national benchmarks.”

The union questions the hospital’s reference to meeting national benchmarks because they do not currently exist.

In Maine there are no laws dictating nurse patient ratios and in January, the national Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals set a new safe staffing standard with the addition of National Patient Safety Goal 12. It does not specify nurse to patient ratios, but instead hospitals must demonstrate continuous registered nurse coverage and support staff to meet patient needs.

Long wait times for emergency department patients, babies being delivered in the emergency department and stalled contract negotiations pushed the hospital’s registered nurses to call the two-day strike in November.

Prior to the November strike, registered nurse Michael MacArthur, who has worked at the Houlton hospital since 2009, said emergency department short staffing is an ongoing problem, particularly during the night shift.

“Basically what we’re doing is standing up for our patients,” Mac Arthur said at the time. “We have concerns that we have addressed with the administration. We need a strong contract that protects us and our patients and attracts and retains excellent nurses.

At the time, Chief Nursing Officer Traci Peabody said the emergency room had delivered one baby since Houlton Regional closed its obstetrical unit in May and that the average number of births had not increased. The number of births in the emergency department since that time were not available.

“Our emergency room, on occasion, does have beds in the hallway,” Peabody said in a November letter to the community. “This is done by design to ensure that patients are within view of medical professionals should they need assistance rather than stay in the waiting room.”

The planned strike will begin at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday and end at 6:44 a.m Saturday. Due to contractual requirements for the replacement nurses, the bargaining unit nurses will return to work on Sunday, May 31.

The hospital has a comprehensive strike plan in place and will remain open, “provide care for our patients, and put patients and our community first,” officials said.