ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Both sides have been mostly quiet after a bargaining session between Mission Hospital and National Nurses United on Monday.

After months of back and forth, National Nurses United and Mission Hospital officials were back at the bargaining table a week after union leaders said 97 percent of the nurses who participated in a recent round of voting authorized the union bargaining team to call for a strike “should they deem it necessary.”

Last week, a union representative said, “Whether or not a strike is called is dependent on what happens at the bargaining table.”

But in the days after this week’s meeting, little has been said by either side about what progress might have been made.

Efforts to reach the NNU for comment have been unsuccessful.

“Nurses are an important part of our care team, and we remain committed to reaching a contract agreement that is fair and equitable and allows us to continue to provide the excellent patient-centered care our community deserves,” HCA Healthcare Division Public and Media Relations Director Nancy Lindell said in a statement Thursday. “We have been bargaining in good faith and will meet with the union again on Oct. 4. We continue to remain hopeful that our negotiations, which have been productive, will come to an amicable end and know there are many who share that feeling.”

The hospital and its unionized nurses have been at the bargaining table since April, trying to reach an agreement. The nurses’ first union contract — ratified in 2021 — expired July 2, 2024.

A flyer from NNU, which represents more than 1,600 registered nurses at Mission, said the hospital “continued to reject proposals on the major issues,” including on safer staffing, significant raises, meal/rest break coverage and better differentials.

In a Mission flyer, officials said much progress has been made since bargaining began in April. And the health care facility’s latest compensation proposal calls for a guaranteed base rate increase between 6 and 12.5 percent for RNs other than new grad hires with less than a year of experience and those at the top of the scale as well as minimum base increases between 5.22 percent for those at the top of the scale and up to 17.12 percent for other RNs.

“A lot has already happened at the bargaining table,” the flyer said. “These negotiations have already produced numerous agreements. In the areas where we remain apart, this week the union made movement on proposals including meal and rest breaks, staffing and scheduling — areas where they previously had not made any movement since April. We appreciate the union moving on these issues.”

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