Registered nurses, allies to demand Maine Health cancel contract with Palantir Technologies

May Day press conference will highlight Palantir's sweeping attacks on working people in Maine, country, globe

Maine Medical Center registered nurses will hold a press conference on Friday, May 1 in Portland to demand Maine Health cancel its contract with Palantir Technologies. Joined by their allies in the Purge Palantir campaign, nurses will detail why leaders of Maine's public institutions and health care organizations should refuse collaborations with the surveillance software giant.To date, Maine Health has denied nurses any details on the nature of its contract with Palantir. In March, RNs and community allies protested in front of Senator Susan Collins' office to demand she return donations from the company.

What: Maine State Nurses Association May Day press conference
Who: Maine Medical Center RNs, Purge Palantir coalition members, community allies
When: Friday, May 1 at 2:00 pm
Where: Western Promenade, Portland (across from 265 Western Prom)

The event will include opportunities for interviews with spokespersons and visuals for photos/video.

The nurses, who are members of Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC), are holding this press conference on May Day with their Purge Palantir campaign allies to underscore the threat Palantir poses to working people everywhere.

Founded by Peter Thiel and led by Alex Karp, Palantir's data tools centralize and organize massive amounts of data collected by the federal government, including Medicaid data, to enable ICE to target, stalk, detain, and deport immigrants. In addition, Palantir has also partnered with Israel's Ministry of Defense in its human rights abuses of the Palestinian people.

Nurses reject the vision for the future put forward by Karp and Palantir. The company's manifesto reveals its ambitions to drastically militarize U.S. society - at a time when the government has already made unprecedented cuts to health care funding in order to fund militarized immigration enforcement domestically and warfare abroad.

Grassroots efforts to reduce Palantir's influence have been successful. Purge Palantir successfully pushed for New York City's public health care agency to end its contract with Palantir. A growing list of Congressional members have publicly rejected Palantir's campaign contributions - including U.S. representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Jason Crow, Pat Ryan and U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper.

May Day is an internationally recognized day of resistance to corporate greed, dating back to 1886 and the fight to win the eight-hour workday in Chicago. NNU is calling on all working people who are able to refrain from shopping or going to school and instead, to take part in creative disruptions. To find and join a May Day Strong event near you, visit www.mobilize.us/mayday.

Maine State Nurses Association is part of National Nurses Organizing Committee, representing 4,000 nurses and other caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing labor union of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide.