Nurses, lab workers and radiology staffers at Calais Regional Hospital plan to go on strike for two days next week, ratcheting up an ongoing labor dispute that included a recent call for the hospital’s CEO to be fired and raising new concerns about what they said has been a poor response to a coronavirus outbreak that recently infected six of their colleagues, the Bangor Daily News reported. The strike will take place next week on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a written notice that Maine State Nurses’ Association, the union representing the workers, provided to the hospital on Friday. The staff members would return to their jobs on Friday morning, Nov. 20, for shifts starting at 7 a.m. The union has about 50 members at the Calais hospital, including registered nurses, medical laboratory scientists, laboratory technologists and radiology technologists. The hospital said that it has a plan to keep operating if the union proceeds with the strike, relying on non-union staff who could be temporarily reassigned to different roles and one temporary worker. But the facility may have to delay some non-essential services, including testing for COVID-19 and elective procedures, according to the statement. In addition to providing testing and treatment in response to the COVID-19 cases now spreading through the community, the hospital also contended with serious cash shortfalls during the early days of the pandemic, when it had to postpone a number of nonessential services. At one point, it said it would lay off 10 percent of its staff and, without additional financial assistance, might have to close in the early summer.
