National Nurses United

For the registered nurses at Mission Hospital in North Carolina, "Organize the South" is more than just a motto. It's exactly what they've been doing. And the North Carolina labor movement is thanking them for it. That saying has become a rallying cry for those worried that the southeastern United States is too often written off by those outside the region. Organizers within the region know that rallying working people around the issues that matter to them remains a potent antidote to the poison of modern electoral, and often partisan, politics. As MaryBe McMillan, the president of North Carolina's state AFL-CIO, said in an interview with National Nurse, "Workers can win in the South." The nurses at Mission Hospital organized themselves to prove just that, as their 2020 election to join National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) was the biggest hospital win for organized labor in the South since the 1970s. It was a historic election for the region overall, too, believed to be the big- gest union win in the South in 12 years when nurses officially approved their new union in a landslide "yes" vote. "Anytime I tell the story, it still feels incredibly badass and unbe- lievable," said Hannah Drummond, an RN in Mission's emergency room and the facility's chief nurse rep. "Sometimes, it can be easy to forget how much we've done already. Although, lately, we've been getting big victory after big victory with our hospital, so we have a definite resurgence of energy, passion, and fire. We're seeing our membership growing. It's cool to see new leaders stepping up." That excitement and energy is palpable not only at Mission but across the state. From the start, the nurses at Mission knew their own union campaign was about more than just their working conditions. It was about the care they could provide for their patients and, by exten- sion, the health and well-being of entire communities in Asheville and the surrounding area. As nurses at the only acute-care facility in the state's western region, they knew their fight was for their fellow North Carolinians, whom they're inspiring with their union. In October, the state's AFL-CIO honored nurses with the P.R. Latta Rank-and-File Award for outstanding organizing, cementing their role in the van- guard of North Carolina's labor movement as unions have reached levels of national public approval not seen since the mid-60s. When it comes to organized labor, the Carolinas have had a rep- utation for hostility to unions and for low union density. North Carolina has one of the lowest union densities in the country, second only to its southern sibling state South Carolina, according to 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Even before they won their union, they were organizing their coworkers in a state where unionization is rare and, relatedly, the law is incredibly hostile to unions. 16 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 Southern Revival Nurses at Mission Hospital are leading the way in North Carolina's growing labor movement, showing what solidarity looks like in their state. B Y L U C Y D I A V O L O

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