ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — After months of negotiations and the threat of a strike, Mission Hospital nurses this week ratified a three-year contract that includes wage increases and improvements in staffing practices.

Registered nurses at Mission Hospital represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, the nation’s largest nurses union, said in a statement Wednesday the newly ratified agreement with HCA Healthcare management will improve patient care and working conditions.

“We are excited to have this new contract and ensure that our hospital is on a path to taking the best possible care of our patients and community,” Huns Brown, RN in the pulmonary progressive care unit, said in the news release. “The devastation Hurricane Helene brought to our region underscores how Mission being the best possible version of itself is more important than ever.”

Highlights of the contract include:

  • Wage increases: Substantial wage increases that will improve nurse recruitment and retention; raises up to 29% for some nurses over the contract’s three-year term.
  • Pilot program on break relief staffing: A new program that will improve staffing practices to ensure nurses can take their meal and rest breaks during their shifts.
  • Nurse floating improvements: New measures will ensure nurses are “floated” (temporarily reassigned) to units similar to their normal specialty.
  • Inclusive documentation: Staff can use preferred names and add personal pronouns to name badges.

“Mission Hospital is so important to Asheville and all of western North Carolina,” Hannah Drummond, RN in the Mission catheterization lab recovery unit, said in the release. “This contract is another step forward to making Mission the hospital it needs to be for our patients. Nurses are the backbone of Mission Hospital, and this contract adds steel to our spine.”

Mission Hospital and its unionized nurses have been at the bargaining table since April, trying to settle their differences. Their most recent contract, ratified in 2021, was the nurses’ first union contract and it expired July 2, 2024.

Mission Hospital released the following statement:

“We are pleased to announce that Mission Hospital has a ratified contract with National Nurses United (NNU). As we indicated all along, our goal was to reach an agreement that was fair for our colleagues and maintained the flexibility that allows us to operate in an ever-changing healthcare environment, and this contract meets those goals.

“Now, as our Western North Carolina community comes together to heal from Hurricane Helene, we are eager to move forward together in providing high-quality care to our patients.”