Gov. Janet Mills urged the CEO of Central Maine Healthcare in a letter Wednesday to reinstate 20 nurses who were fired or suspended days before a union election at the Lewiston hospital.

She said the failure to do so would heighten concerns that the health system’s new owners are breaking commitments they made to the state.

Nurses at Central Maine Medical Center filed for an election late last month to join the Maine State Nurses Association, advocating for safer staffing, improved patient care and nurse retention. The move comes months after the health system’s acquisition by Prime Healthcare Foundation, a California-based nonprofit owned by the fourth largest for-profit health system in the country, Prime.

Central Maine Healthcare, now led by former Prime executive Allen Stefanek, has condemned the unionization effort. In the face of a “nurses vote no” campaign diffused through hospital signs and communications, dozens of nurses have continued to attend pro-union rallies and events over the last few weeks. The union election is Thursday.

But over the last week, CMMC fired 15 nurses and suspended five others. A hospital spokesperson said the nurses were disciplined for violating hospital policies, not for participating in union activities.

Mills said the action “raises serious questions about retaliation.”

“I strongly urge you to immediately reinstate every nurse who has been wrongfully fired or
suspended,” Mills wrote to Stefanek. “Failure to do so will make clear to Maine people that Prime Healthcare is prioritizing corporate interests over the commitments it made to the state of Maine to deliver the quality health care which Maine people expect and deserve.”

Prime Healthcare Foundation agreed to several conditions before the state allowed it to acquire Central Maine Healthcare in February, including that the hospital would maintain essential health services and adequate patient volumes to support quality and safety.

Mills said the state was already reviewing Prime’s compliance with staffing requirements after receiving a number of complaints about staffing shortages and quality of care issues in July. She said the decision to fire and suspend nurses only increases the state’s safety concerns.

In response to Mills’ statement, a CMMC spokesperson said that organizing activity has interfered with hospital operations and disrupted patient care.

“There is a fundamental difference between legally protected organizing activity and conduct that violates long-standing hospital policies, abandons clinical care or work responsibilities, involves timekeeping violations, improperly accesses hospital property or interferes with essential hospital operations and patient care,” the spokesperson said. “Our patients should never become leverage in a labor campaign.”

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, also called on Prime Healthcare to “end alleged intimidation and retaliation against nurses” in a letter Wednesday to Prime CEO Dr. Prem Reddy. It was co-signed by Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, D-2nd District, and other congressional Democrats.

Lewiston leaders and community members have echoed that message at city meetings and on social media. A GoFundMe for the discharged nurses has raised nearly $9,000 in a week. There will be a community support rally Friday at noon on Main Street in Lewiston.

Many, like Mills, cite the ongoing nursing shortage in Maine.

“At a time when we are in desperate need of healthcare professionals,” Mills said, “it is unconscionable that CMMC would fire or suspend so many nurses in such short order.”