NC Nurses win Union for the First Time

Asheville, N.C. — In a mail-in ballot election, registered nurses at Mission Hospital Healthcare North Carolina Division voted 70 percent in favor of joining National Nurses United on Sept. 17. It’s the biggest hospital union victory in the South since 1975 and the first-ever election win for a union at a private hospital in North Carolina. NNU will represent 1,800 registered nurses at the hospital.

The successful union drove pit workers against HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital corporation with 184 hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. In February 2019, HCA paid $1.5 billion for Mission and six other nonprofit hospitals in western North Carolina.

NNU represents about 10,000 nurses at 19 HCA facilities across the country. The union drive at Mission Hospital is NNU’s largest campaign ever undertaken in North Carolina.

In the wake of the takeover by the multinational corporation, nurses saw patient care standards and working conditions quickly deteriorate. Four nurses initiated the union drive in May 2019 over cuts in staff, poor communication, and lack of access to basic supplies and personal protective equipment.