Nurses at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent, represented by the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United, are returning to the bargaining table after a hard-fought recertification vote preserved their union.
In today’s interview on the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, psychiatric nurse and RN Bargaining Team member, Terry Caron, described why she joined the union during their first contract negotiations, how workplace restrictions and anti-union pressure intensified during a decertification drive and why staffing, professional practice standards and patient care remain central to the next phase of negotiations. The conversation also highlighted how service reductions impacted communities, including the loss of child and adolescent psychiatric beds in a state with limited capacity.
In rural communities, hospitals are more than workplaces. They are anchors for public health, emergency response and behavioral health access. When services shrink, the ripple effects can reach families, schools and first responders across entire regions.
At Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent, nurses represented by the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United, are navigating that reality while also fighting to secure their first collective bargaining agreement.
On the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Terry Caron, a registered nurse with nearly 14 years of experience in psychiatric care, outlined the stakes of a recent recertification vote that kept the union in place. She also described the workplace pressures that emerged during the decertification campaign, as well as the unresolved issues nurses plan to bring back to the table.
Caron’s conversation reflects a familiar pattern in healthcare: workers organizing for stability and standards while operating in rapidly changing systems, often without meaningful frontline input.
MSNA is part of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses. In Fort Kent, the union represents nurses working under conditions shaped by staffing constraints, shifting service lines and the demands of psychiatric care.
Caron said she did not enter nursing with a union background. She described her path as practical at first: she wanted to stay in her community and chose a profession that offered reliable employment. Over time, she said, nursing became more than job security. It became a calling.
That sense of responsibility, she said, also pushed her toward union involvement as nurses began organizing and negotiating a first contract.
Caron said nurses had been negotiating their first contract for nearly two years when a petition to decertify the union was filed. The timing mattered. First-contract bargaining is often the period when workers are most vulnerable to delay, division and turnover.
In early January, nurses voted to keep the union. The result preserved MSNA’s ability to represent members at the bargaining table.
Caron said she joined the union in January 2024 after being approached during the early organizing phase. She admitted she started with limited knowledge of unions, but then did her research and concluded that collective representation made sense for nurses seeking enforceable standards.
Caron described a workplace environment that tightened during the decertification effort. She said restrictions appeared around union visibility and communication, including limitations on wearing union apparel and the removal of union materials from common areas.
Caron also described a broader pattern of pressure that, in her view, created uncertainty for some pro-union staff.
In healthcare settings, nurses often emphasize that union communication is not an abstract political issue, Caron said. It is tied to whether frontline staff can share information about staffing, safety and professional practice without fear.
Caron works in psychiatric nursing, a field that intersects directly with community health capacity. She described a significant change when Northern Maine Medical Center changed its classification to a critical access hospital, which involved maintaining adult psychiatric beds but eliminating the child and adolescent unit.
The concern was not only the closure itself but the process, Caron said. Assurances were made that beds and positions would not be lost, but they saw a rapid halt to admissions and then the unit shut down.
In a state with limited pediatric psychiatric capacity, the loss of seven child and adolescent beds is not a small adjustment. It is a measurable reduction in access, she said.
Caron said nurses pushed back through meetings with administration. They also attempted to address the closure through bargaining. Once the decision was effectively final, she said the union shifted its focus to protecting displaced staff and ensuring fair placement in other positions.
That approach reflects a core union function in healthcare: when management decisions change service lines, unions often become the primary vehicle for transparency, fairness and continuity for workers.
With the recertification vote complete, Caron said nurses are preparing to return to bargaining for the first time since November.
She identified staffing and professional practice as central issues. In many hospitals, staffing is not only a workforce issue. It is a patient safety issue, affecting response times, medication administration, de-escalation capacity in psychiatric settings and overall continuity of care.
Caron also emphasized the importance of a professional practice committee, a structure that can formalize nurse input on clinical standards, staffing models and patient care priorities.
Caron said the union’s immediate goal is to resume negotiations and resolve outstanding issues, with patient care as the guiding priority.
For nurses, a first contract is often the foundation for everything that follows: wage standards, scheduling protections, grievance procedures and enforceable staffing language. It also sets expectations for how management will engage with frontline workers.
In Fort Kent, the next phase will test whether the hospital is prepared to move from conflict toward a workable agreement.
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