News

Mission nurses vote overwhelmingly in favor of strike

By Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press, Published: September 4, 2024

Ninety-seven percent of nurses voted in favor of authorizing a strike at Mission Hospital in Asheville over Labor Day weekend.

Although this display of unity does not guarantee a strike will occur, it does give the union’s bargaining team the authority to call a strike if deemed necessary.

This vote has the potential to give the union much more leverage in its negotiations with HCA, the Tennessee-based for-profit hospital chain that acquired the hospital’s parent company, Mission Health, in 2019. 

The bargaining team is currently considering a one-day strike. The team must provide the hospital with a 10-day work stoppage notice if the team decides a strike is the only way to move negotiations forward. As long as a new contract is not ratified, the strike vote is current.

The next bargaining session between the union and HCA is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9.

“We’re hoping that when we go to the bargaining table on the 9th, that HCA sees how serious our nurses are about protecting our patients and our community,” Terri Wilson, a nurse at Mission Health and member of the union’s bargaining team, told Carolina Public Press. “We hope that they have made some movement, and we can come to an agreement on a contract that works for everyone, and that a strike does not have to happen.”

The nurses union did not release the total number of votes cast, but did confirm that a majority of nurses at the hospital participated in the vote. The union extended the voting deadline to ensure that this was the case.

All nurses, regardless of whether they’re union members, could place an anonymous ballot in favor of or against a strike. The result — 97 prcent in favor of strike authorization — represents a remarkable majority.

According to Wilson, the energy in the cafeteria where the ballots were collected was very supportive of a strike authorization, with most nurses wearing their union buttons. She said the bargaining team was not surprised by the results. 

The nurses union has been negotiating with HCA on a new contract since April. The union feels that little meaningful progress has been made. Nurses at the hospital have been working under an expired contract since early July.

Mission 'fully prepared to remain open'

Mission Health downplayed the significance of the vote.

“It was fully expected that the union would claim overwhelming support for a strike as this is a common bargaining tactic, especially from this union,” HCA spokesperson Nancy Lindell told Carolina Public Press in an email. “The union has seemed intent on striking long before bargaining began. As we continue to say, a strike is unnecessary and it would be more productive for the union to bargain in good faith as we have done for months and are committed to continuing, so we can move forward together in caring for patients.

“If the union decides to move forward with a strike, Mission Hospital is fully prepared to remain open and provide care for our patients. We have plans in place allowing us to be confident that it will be safe for our patients and for any nurse who makes the personal decision to cross the picket line.”

HCA has not shared its plan to keep the hospital operational during a strike with the union. However, Lindell told CPP in June that Mission Health took a proactive measure of contracting nursing staff who can care for their patients in case of a strike. 

“They haven’t told us anything for sure, but they’ve put out a lot of information that sounds threatening,” Wilson said. “It seems they’re threatening a lockout or something of that nature.”

A lockout is a defensive measure a company can take during a strike: taking back negotiating power by not letting employees back across the picket line when they are done striking. It is only feasible when enough labor is still in place for the company to be operational, which Lindell suggested is the case.

“I hope that we can come to an agreement so we don’t have to find out what a strike really looks like,” Wilson said.

Nurses at Mission Hospital originally voted to organize a union in 2020, a year after HCA acquired the chain. The Asheville facility remains the only unionized hospital in North Carolina. Nurses at other Mission Health facilities are not part of the union and not directly affected by the strike vote.

This strike vote result is essentially unprecedented in the state, particularly in the service sector, according to N.C. State University labor economics professor Steven Allen. North Carolina has the second-lowest percentage of workers who are members of unions in the county, beating only South Carolina in that ranking.

“It’s really a stretch to think of too many service sector workers in the state who are unionized and have enough unity within the union to be able to go on strike,” Allen said. “It is remarkable. But Asheville is the bluest chunk of this state, so that might be one reason why this is possible in that region.”

The union says three major areas of concern are improved nurse-to-patient ratios, efforts to reduce patient violence against nurses and wages that keep up with the rising cost of living in Asheville. Nurses also want fair meal and rest breaks, improved health benefits and recognition of more federal holidays.

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