This story will be updated.
Registered nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital announced Wednesday that they signed a petition of no confidence in the CEO because the board of trustees failed to respond to concerns, according to the nurses union.
The 55 Houlton nurses, members of the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, sent a letter of no confidence in CEO Jeff Zewe to the board of trustees in July and invited the board to a meeting to hear their concerns.
“They didn’t show up. All we’ve heard is silence,” several members of the bargaining committee said in a Wednesday statement.
Wednesday’s action comes on the heels of a letter of no confidence sent to Zewe earlier this month by the registered nurses at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent, also under his leadership. The northern Maine nurses issued the letter after half of the emergency department nurses resigned because Zewe created a toxic environment that put their licenses and patients at risk.
In June 2025, Zewe, who had already been at the helm of the Fort Kent hospital, took on the Houlton hospital leadership in a management agreement.
The Houlton nurses said Wednesday that Zewe has only been leading the Houlton hospital for a little over a year, but has already caused “significant damage to the hospital and community.”
The nurses’ July letter followed a four-day strike in May, the second strike in six months.
In their petition of no confidence the nurses said they must take action “while there is still time to preserve and protect our community hospital,” and called on the board of trustees to terminate Zewe’s employment immediately.
“We are greatly saddened that the Houlton Regional Hospital Board of Trustees didn’t keep its word to listen to employees,” the bargaining committee said Wednesday.
The committee includes registered nurses Tori Quint, operating room; Mary Howland, acute care department; Erin Mitchell, emergency department; Cassidy Hardy, acute care; Brooke Howland, acute care; Christina Schimdt, operating room; and Kelli Lawlor, operating room.
