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Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston has filed objections to the union election nurses won overwhelmingly last month, raising concerns that employees could not freely choose whether to vote.

Objections go through the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees labor practices and certifies elections.

The nurses have also filed complaints with the board against the hospital, claiming that CMMC retaliated against protected union activities when it fired or suspended 20 nurses in the week before the vote to join the Maine State Nurses Association and National Nurses United.

Amid the claims of union retaliation, CMMC asked the board to block the election. The NLRB denied the request Sept. 22. The election took place two days later, with the nurses approving the union by a vote of 204-21.

Now, in a request for review of that denial, the hospital is claiming the NLRB should have blocked the union election like it did at Saint Francis Hospital in Illinois, which is also owned by Prime Healthcare Foundation.

Union officials in Illinois asked the NLRB to block Saint Francis’ Sept. 17 union election on the grounds that a free and fair vote was not possible because Prime Healthcare Foundation was breaking the law. The board granted the request on Sept. 14.

According to union officials, Prime Healthcare Foundation illegally fired between 13 and 45 per diem nurses during a public campaign to join National Nurses United in Illinois.

CMMC says that precedent warrants review of “the unexplained denial” of CMMC’s request to block the election in Lewiston, which hospital officials say “permitted the election to proceed without addressing whether materially overlapping allegations at Central Maine and (Saint Francis) presented materially different risks to employee free choice.”

Union officials countered that the cases are legally distinct.

In the meantime, the union says it is still fighting for the 20 suspended and terminated nurses to be reinstated.

“Nurses are continuing to work with community members and elected officials to get all the nurses reinstated,” union officials said Tuesday.