Statement from Mission Health:
This past year has brought a great deal of change at Mission Hospital, including the many steps we have been taking over that time to improve how we support our staff in providing patient care. We have sent our colleagues the attached letter from Chad Patrick, Chief Executive Office, Mission Hospital.
On Friday afternoon, we learned that National Nurses United filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for an election to unionize our Registered Nurses at Mission Hospital. Because this issue will fundamentally impact our hospital, our community, and all of our team members, I wanted you to hear from me personally.
We respect the right of every nurse to make their own decision regarding whether or not union representation is right for them. They will have that opportunity in the secret ballot vote that will be scheduled within the next few weeks.
I was discouraged when I first learned that some of our nurses felt the need for a third party to speak for them in the workplace. But I understand. This past year has brought a great deal of change at Mission Hospital. In prior communications, I’ve shared the steps we are taking to improve how we support you in providing patient care. But it is clear that we have more to do to explain our vision and the path we are taking to get there. While we cannot rewrite history, I am confident that we can, and will, do better.
Simply put, we don’t believe union representation is right for nurses at Mission Hospital. I say that not out of disrespect to nurses who support the union, but out of my firm belief that unions can be divisive and undermine the very relationships that strengthen our patient care teams.
As you may know, I previously worked at HCA Healthcare affiliated hospitals in Florida. It has been mentioned that some of those hospitals are unionized. That’s true. But what the union may not have told you is that those elections were different than this one. In those elections, the hospitals could not share factual information regarding unions. I strongly believe that if our team members in Florida had the benefit of hearing all of the facts, they would have made different decisions and would have voted “No.”
Our nurses have the opportunity to be fully informed on this critical issue. So I urge each of you to carefully examine what union representation would actually mean for our nurses, their families, our hospital, and our patients. We’ll be sharing facts about unions and resources you can explore to learn more on your own.
What comes next? The NLRB will schedule a secret ballot election and it will count the ballots after the vote. Every vote is extremely important. The union will represent our Mission Hospital nurses with just a simple majority of those nurses who turn out to vote – 50 percent plus one. If only 100 nurses vote, those 100 nurses will determine the outcome for every nurse at Mission Hospital, so every nurse’s voice is critically important. The choice each nurse makes in this secret ballot election is theirs alone.
I hope and trust our dedicated nurses make a well-informed decision and urge everyone one of them to vote when the time comes. I greatly appreciate your passionate dedication to Mission Hospital and the care we provide in our community.
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