National Nurses United

LOUISIANA N urses at University Medical Cen- ter New Orleans (UMCNO) in Louisiana held a three-day strike Nov. 11-13 to protest the refusal of the hospital's owner and operator, LCMC Health, to address concerns about nursing staff retention as part of ongoing first contract bargaining. The nurses say their hospital, considered an economic and technological marvel at the time of its construction, is being managed in ways that hurt the ability to retain experienced health care workers, including nurses. Nurses believe experienced workers with direct ties to Louisiana commu- nities provide the best possible patient care. Nurses at UMCNO began negotiating their first collective bargaining agreement with LCMC Health, UMCNO's operator, in March 2024. They won a historic election to join National Nurses Organizing Commit- tee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) in December 2023. UMC was not only the first private-sector hospital to be unionized in the state of Louisiana, it was also the largest National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election in Louisiana in nearly 30 years, making UMC nurses' vote to join NNOC/NNU a watershed victory for labor organizing in the South. "We're tired of LCMC's revolving-door strategy for staffing our hospital," said Kisha Montes, RN in the behavioral health unit at UMCNO. "It's not hard to recruit highly tal- ented nurses to a Level 1 Trauma Center in a city like New Orleans, but we're tired of see- ing those nurses leave for other jobs. LCMC needs to work with us to retain the neces- sary staff to take care of our patients." "I work with some of the best nurses in the world," said Emily Blau, RN in the neu- rological intensive care unit at UMCNO. "What we're asking for are measures to make sure those nurses stay here, working at our hospital in our community. It's time to get this deal done so we can protect not just our current nurses, but ensure we have great nurses working here for years to come." On Nov. 12, the second day of the strike, NNOC/NNU released a report that detailed disturbing business and financial practices from LCMC Health. The report, "Charity Betrayed: LCMC and the Crisis of Health Care Affordability in New Orleans," includes extensive findings on LCMC's role in the broader New Orleans health care affordabil- ity crisis. Using a measure called charge-to-cost ratio, the research indicates that LCMC leads New Orleans providers in how much it charges for services relative to the cost of providing those services. LCMC's charges are equivalent to 576 percent of the costs for those services, making its charge- to-cost ratio the highest in the region and, on average, 41 percent higher than the Ochsner hospitals in the New Orleans area. Additionally, the report includes details on LCMC executive pay, finding that, since 2013, executive pay has been equivalent to 41 percent of LCMC's net income. Yet respondents to a 2025 survey of LCMC patients by Step Up Louisiana found that the company routinely failed to inform its patients about the availability of charity care or financial assistance. In fact, LCMC's total cost of charity care only accounted for 0.82 percent of its total expenses, far below the national average of 2.6 percent. Since 2013, LCMC made over $800 million in net income (sometimes referred to as profit) and paid its executives more than double its total charity care costs. "This report shows how LCMC over- charges our community for care while paying out their executives," said Shonda Franklin, RN in the float pool at UMCNO. "Executives are being paid millions while we have a revolving door of new staff in our hospital. In order to retain hospital staff, we need to see LCMC invest in our hospital so we can retain staff, including nurses and everyone else who works at our hospital." "I stand with UMC nurses in their con- tinued fight for nurse retention," said Julie Su, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, who joined the nurses at a rally on the second day of the strike. "Their critical, compas- sionate, expert work keeps New Orleans healthy, and they deserve to be valued." —Lucy Diavolo New Orleans nurses strike for first contract UMCNO nurses protest LCMC's refusal to address retention issues, new report shows LCMC's high charges for cost of care and how expensive care is in New Orleans O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 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 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 7

• Cover