Without delays, Mission employee $22M pay raises go live, union claims ‘big wage victory’

ASHEVILLE - Union nurses at HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Health are claiming victory as a $22 million wage hike went into effect Sept. 11 for many employees, including union members, even though the hospital previously indicated union pay increases might be “delayed.”

Though Mission originally said the raises could have been “delayed” by collective bargaining procedures, everyone, including union members, will get pay increases on the same day.

There are just fewer than 1,400 members in the Asheville chapter of National Nurses United, according to labor representative Brian Walsh. The union formed in 2020 and has been active since.

Mission Health employs roughly 12,000 people at its seven Western North Carolina locations, according to documents filed with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The raises come as HCA and Mission were hit with three antitrust, class action lawsuits since August 2021, one from six Buncombe-area residents, one from the city of Brevard and one combined lawsuit from Buncombe County and the city Asheville. Brevard, Asheville and Buncombe now have combined their cases and added Madison County as a plaintiff.

Wage increases include those for Mission Health hospitals across Western North Carolina and for many patient care roles such as environmental services, — people who clean rooms, equipment, common areas, among other duties — lab, laundry and patient care technicians, according to a Sept. 7 news release from the hospital system.

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"For nearly a year, Mission Hospital nurses have been speaking out and protesting about the staffing crisis at the facility and urging HCA to focus on recruitment and retention," Mission registered nurse Lori Hedrick said in an email Sept. 7.

“This would not be possible without the power of our union and the persistence of our campaign,” National Nurses United Organizing Committee said in a news release the same day, titled "Mission Nurses Win Big Victory!"

It stated nurses would be moved to a new scale that starts at $30 per hour for staff registered nurses and tops out at $43.57.

Registered nurses on the critical care scale will start at $33 per hour and will go up to $47.35 an hour.

Mission Health spokesperson Nancy Lindell did not respond when asked for a current employee pay scale, showing what employees made before the wage increase.

Despite these raises, the union is still at loggerheads with Mission in some ways.

“While we are happy that most nurses will receive wage increases, we will continue our fight until all nurses, including PRNs, — nurses who work on an as needed basis — are made whole,” the union’s release stated.

Furthermore, National Nurses United southern director of collective bargaining Bradley Van Waus — who wrote the news release — took issue with Mission’s assertion that necessary bargaining for pay raises was “delayed.”

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He said Mission told Asheville nurse union leadership about the raises Sept. 6 and the matter was agreed to Sept. 7, the same day Mission announced the $22 million hike.

“Management approached us last week on Tuesday and said that they wanted to do wage increases after nurses had really been demanding this for months,” Van Waus said. “Immediately after that we got in touch with leaders of the union at Mission Hospital and made the decision to move forward.”

The decision was “finalized” Sept. 7, he said.

That day, Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell said in an email that while most increases would "start right away" for non-union employees, increases for union members will be delayed "while the hospital follows the collective bargaining agreement’s process for notifying the union and discussing the hospital’s proposed increases."

Ultimately, all increases went into effect on the same day, Sept. 11.

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“The only delay is that HCA management should have done this sooner,” Van Waus said Sept. 12. “They should have approached the nurses sooner than this. Nurses have been fighting to make sure that HCA focuses on recruitment and retention. We view the raises as HCA’s response to nurses actions in front of and in the hospital.”

The union reiterated that in the release with a section titled “How We Won.”

That section lists several reasons union members believe the union played a key role in the raises.

Those includes:

• A letter to Sam Hazen (HCA CEO) demanding wage adjustments.

• Launch of the visual petition for wage adjustments.

• Outdoor protests nearly every month at the Asheville hospital  demanding improvements to retention and recruitment.

“We know that HCA’s for-profit model has been depriving nurses from the bedside, not just here in Asheville but nationally,” Van Waus said.

Union nurses called the raises a “victory” and asked whether the union was the only force at work, Van Waus said he agreed.

“HCA only spends money when nurses demand it,” He said. “If nurses hadn’t been protesting in front of the hospital, I think there would have been a very different outcome here.”

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Asked for details on the decision, Lindell said the decision was based on market factors and discussion with employees.

"HCA Healthcare regularly reviews role compensation in respect of market dynamics and, as such, has been making salary adjustments in many locations, regardless of union representation," she said. "These wage increases were developed across the last few months and now implemented by HCA Healthcare and the North Carolina leadership team after evaluating the market and listening to our front-line colleagues through rounding, engagement surveys and other forums."

Mission Health’s efforts to recruit and retain staff are extensive, she added.

Lindell also said in a Sept. 12 email that "the wage increases announced last week are far greater and come sooner than what the union has negotiated in the current contract and increases are also being given to non-union nurses and many other roles across Mission Health."

Healthcare is the largest employer in Buncombe, Jackson, Haywood, Transylvania, Henderson, Polk, Rutherford, McDowell, Yancey and Madison counties combined, according to a recent survey created by workforce development organizations, and includes between 6,450 at the low end and12,159 at the high end.

HCA's revenue in 2021 was more than $58.7 billion, according to company reports, which included profits of nearly $7 billion.

As previously reported by the Citizen Times, the decision to raise wages comes as Mission Health is one of three hospital systems — including Novant Health and AdventHealth — seeking to expand by 67 acute care beds in Buncombe County through a certificate of need. Officials with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Health Service Regulation may make a decision on this CON before the end of 2022.

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AdventHealth and Novant want to build new facilities. Mission wants to expand its hospital in Asheville.

HCA and Mission are currently being used by Buncombe and Madison counties, the cities of Brevard and Asheville and six WNC area residents, all of whom allege antitrust, non-competitive practices by the system.

Andrew Jones is an investigative reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Union claims 'victory' following $22M in Western NC Mission raises