Hundreds rally at to support nurses in contract battle

 By Gerard Albert III

Hundreds of health care workers and their supporters rallied Aug. 6 outside Asheville’s Mission Hospital as the nurses union said negotiations with HCA Healthcare for more staffing, holiday pay and a safer workplace remain stagnant.

The rally was part of a push from the union to pressure HCA, a for-profit that purchased Mission in 2019, for better working conditions. The event was the latest in a long line of actions by local and state officials against the company.

Among the union’s demands were calls for more staffing and better pay to retain nurses.

Kerri Wilson, a registered nurse at the hospital for nearly nine years, serves on the 11-member Mission Nurses United bargaining team. She said the group started negotiations with HCA in April, but progress has been slow.

“HCA really isn’t moving at all. They’re not truly bargaining with us,” she said. “They’ve given us nothing on staffing. We’re trying to find a way to actually enforce our patient ratios so that we can give the care that our community needs, and HCA is not budging.”

Wilson came to the rally on her day off but still donning a pair of dark blue scrubs and her hospital ID badge. Her 8-year-old son, Wyatt, joined her on the picket line, holding a sign that read, “Safe Staffing Saves Lives.”

For Wilson, the issue can’t be overstated.

“Staffing is always our No. 1 [issue] because so many issues inside the hospital could be fixed just by giving us the appropriate staff,” she said. Adding even one extra patient to a nurse’s rotation can impede on the ability to eat lunch or go to the bathroom comfortably, she said.

Nurses stood out in the crowd of about 200 rallygoers who ranged in age from 8-80. Most wore dark blue or bright teal scrubs. Others in the crowd and drivers whisking by on Biltmore Avenue yelled out their appreciation.

Wearing a bright red shirt with the union logo and a matching headband, bargaining team member Molly Zenker held a sign that read, “Patients Over Profits.” She said inadequate staffing affects patient care.

“I think the biggest thing is having a safe staffing ratio. It makes or breaks your quality of care, and it literally makes or breaks your patient’s life,“ she said. “We want our nurses to have teams that they can manage safely, and we want our nurses to take breaks so that they’re not worn out, and they can actually do a job that takes a lot of mental and physical and emotional strain.”

The rally marked the latest in a series of tumultuous happenings for the country’s largest for-profit hospital company. After the union’s contract expired on July 3 without a new contract, HCA faced findings by the independent monitor that the company was potentially out of compliance with the original purchase agreement.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Attorney General Josh Stein filed suit against the health care company late last year, alleging noncompliance with the terms of the 2019 sale.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare issued an “immediate jeopardy” designation, citing multiple incidents of patient harm and death. HCA took corrective action to avoid potential funding losses from CMS.

Last month a new group, Reclaim Healthcare WNC, composed of local elected officials, health care professionals and others called for HCA to sell Mission Health System.

Both Wilson and Zenker said they felt hopeful about the next bargaining session with the health care giant. Wilson said the outpouring of community support at the rally shows how bad the hospital’s reputation has become. As they inch closer to a possible strike, nurses need that support, she said.

“It’s really exciting and empowering to see everybody coming together, and it really shows us that we do have the support of not only all of our nurses but our community to keep fighting against HCA until we get a good contract,” Wilson said.

“So we’ll go back to the bargaining table, and hopefully they will see that nurses are serious about this in our community,” she said.”And they’ll actually give us something that we can work with.”

HCA did not respond to requests for comment before publication.