FORT KENT, Maine — Members of the union representing nurses at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent are calling for their colleague to be reinstated after her contract expired and her employment at the hospital ended.
Tiffani Daigle worked as a registered nurse for five years, including several years on a per-diem basis, with more flexible shift schedules.
Daigle said the hospital offered her a contract in August for a more fixed position, which she accepted. But she claims she reached that decision after her manager assured her she could continue work at NMMC as a per-diem nurse after the contract expired.
“I texted my manager and said I just want to make sure this contract isn’t going to take away my position at the end of it…will I remain per diem? And she said you’ll still have your status,” Daigle told NEWS CENTER Maine.
But last month, when her contract expired on Jan. 25, Daigle said the per-diem shifts she was scheduled to work had been canceled, and her supervisor informed her she was no longer a per-diem nurse.
“They never gave me a reason. I've never been written up. I've never been in trouble for anything,” Daigle said.
Co-workers of Daigle said her absence has been felt at the hospital.
“If we lose somebody we're comfortable working with, it does affect all of us,” Ashley Plourde, a fellow emergency room nurse, said.
A petition circulating in the community aims to put pressure on the hospital to re-instate Daigle. It gained hundreds of signatures, by their estimation, alleging Daigle was "unjustly fired." The petition was delivered to hospital management on Feb. 7.
A spokesperson for the hospital responded to a NEWS CENTER Maine inquiry asking about the allegations of wrongful termination or firing raised by Daigle and the union: “Miss Daigle entered into a contract for services with Northern Maine Medical Center and her contract ended.”
Follow-up questions have been sent to the hospital, but they have not responded.
Nurses at NMMC voted 62 percent in favor of unionizing with Maine State Nurses Association, a division of National Nurses Organizing Committee, on Jan. 17, according to a press release from the union.