The Mount Desert Island (MDI) Hospital is taking disciplinary action against five nurses who participated in a Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA)/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNU) union protest on May 8 against the hospital’s decision to close its labor and delivery unit.
“Instead of working with nurses toward solutions that could save Bar Harbor’s obstetrics unit, MDI Hospital’s management is resorting to lowbrow tactics. Labelling a peaceful assembly of nurses and community members as an ‘unruly mob’ is an attempt to distract from the community’s overwhelming opposition to their reckless and dangerous decision,” said MSNA president Cokie Giles.
“MSNA stands squarely with these nurses who are facing extreme retaliation from [MDI Hospital] CEO Chrissi Maguire,” she added.
Five nurses working in the hospital’s obstetrics department, set to close on July 1, received written warnings for their protest. Union officials claim that the written warnings are merely the first step on the road to termination under the MSNA’s collective bargaining agreement.
The nursing union harshly condemned the hospital’s decision, but the hospital claims the union is mischaracterizing the situation.
According to a letter from hospital attorney Daniel Strader, obtained by the Mount Desert Islander, the disciplined nurses barged into Maguire’s office while she was on the phone and “aggressively” confronted her for 20 minutes.
One of the nurses involved was allegedly on duty and being paid at the time of the incident. The group of nurses reportedly used their hospital key cards to enter through an employees-only entrance, but brought in one nurse who was not employed by the MDI Hospital, thus violating security policies.
“MDI nurses who participated in the unlawful picketing yesterday, and who violated hospital policies by bringing a non-employee through a private employee entrance, will be disciplined,” wrote Strader in his letter to the union.
“We are extremely disappointed that the MSNA has resorted to such unlawful tactics, at the expense of the patients it professes to care about, and this type of conduct will absolutely not be tolerated,” he added.
The hospital is closing down its labor and delivery ward because it simply does not have enough births to warrant the cost of keeping it open. The hospital had a relatively low number of 33 births in 2024 and has only had nine births so far in 2025.
“The decision to close Labor and Delivery was not based on funding alone. Unfortunately, financial support cannot resolve the fundamental challenges we face, primarily a significantly declining birthrate. With the lowest number of annual births of any hospital unit in Maine, we are no longer able to sustain the level of volume required to provide safe, high-quality obstetric care,” said the hospital.
