Baltimore RNs say Ascension management, outside groups won’t stop their fight for safer, better patient care

Registered nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Md., decisively voted to maintain their representation from National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest nurses union. In a vote conducted Jan. 30 to Jan. 31, nurses recertified NNOC/NNU as their union representation, winning by a larger margin than their original union election in November 2023 and shutting down management’s latest attempt to silence them.

“It was disappointing that Ascension administration wasted so many resources fighting our union rather than prioritizing what we need most — safe staffing, nurse retention, and patient safety,” said Robin Buckner, RN in vascular access therapy at Saint Agnes. “But we are proud that we reaffirmed our power and defeated this attempt to weaken our patient advocacy. We will never stop fighting for our patients, and we will continue bargaining for our first contract to protect our gains and make transformative changes to our hospital.”

Nurses at the facility say they voted to keep their union because it is critical that nurses have a voice in patient care and working conditions at their hospital. They also say that the attempted decertification pushed by Ascension management and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation was a disgraceful, shameful attempt to weaken the nurses’ union and that those efforts should instead be directed towards working with nurses on their first contract. Ascension was named to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s 2024 “Dirty Dozen” list of dangerous employers, and NNU analysis found that Ascension has gutted labor and delivery services at several facilities.

Nurses at Saint Agnes voted to join NNOC/NNU in November 2023. Prior to that, nurses had filed federal charges against Ascension management for interfering in the election, an early sign of how Ascension management would handle their new union. Undeterred, nurses began bargaining their first contract in January 2024, demanding a better and safer hospital, and have rallied for patients first policies and to hold Ascension to its mission as a Catholic non-profit hospital system. They are one of several Ascension hospitals where nurses have unionized with NNOC/NNU representation in recent years.

NNOC/NNU still represents more than 500 nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with nearly 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.