Stand with Mission Nurses for Better Care

Mission Hospital is in a crisis of its own making, and nurses with Mission Nurses United are fighting to right the ship — but they need your help.

The nurses at Mission hospital are negotiating a new union contract (their previous contract expired on 7/2), and will likely need to go on strike to win changes at Mission – changes that will not only benefit the nurses, but our entire community. They’re fighting for better working conditions, safer conditions for patients, and wages that allow them to continue working their essential jobs.

Nurses at Mission have our backs — now we need to have theirs. Asheville for Nurses are working with Asheville DSA to create a strike fund because striking might very well be what it takes to win concessions from HCA. Going on strike means nurses, many of whom make low wages and live paycheck-to-paycheck, will have to take a hit to their income.

A strike fund will make it easier for every nurse who wants to fight to turn things around at Mission to participate in the strike. It will keep food on their tables and show that the Asheville community stands firmly with some of our most essential and self-sacrificing workers in their negotiations with a greedy company that turned a well-regarded hospital into one that puts private profit over health.

Our nurses deserve better, and so does our community. When workers fight for better conditions, it raises all of our ability to make Asheville work for working people, not just big corporations. A panel of nurses will coordinate to distribute the strike fund.

Background on this contract fight:

In 2019, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) bought the then-nonprofit Mission Hospital, and have since cut staff by 40% — increasing their profits drastically, but with disastrous consequences for community safety and working conditions at the hospital. In fact, conditions became so terrible that Mission almost lost federal funding from Medicare and Medicaid! Safe staffing is directly linked to patient outcomes, and in their contract fight, nurses are demanding that Mission commit to staffing the bare minimum number of nurses to keep patients safe, something HCA insists isn’t possible despite their high profits and executive bonuses. HCA CEO Sam Hazen’s total compensation in 2023 was $21,315,984, and just a portion of that money could do so much for our nurses and community health.

Because of HCA’s profit-hungry negligence, nurses are often forced to work overtime, work 10+ hour shifts without breaks, and perform back-breaking labor without adequate support, as well as contend with insulting wage proposals that don’t even keep up with inflation — all while HCA reaps record profits and patient costs go up. Mission is one of the most profitable hospitals owned by HCA, and they could easily use their excessive profits to bring the nurse to patient ratio in line with national standards, pay living wages, and prioritize safety — all without raising patient costs.

Note: while likely in this case, no strike is ever guaranteed. If the nurses are able to win a good contract that addresses their needs without striking, donations will still go to local nurses experiencing economic hardship. Either way, your donation means the world to our struggling nurses!