After six months of negotiations, healthcare workers employed by Hospital Corporation of America-affiliated hospitals in Florida are frustrated that their hospitals are only offering 1.75% wage increases the first year of their contract and just 2% the other two years. Even more frustrating, the hospitals continue to refuse to guarantee wage increases for per diem employees and to stop capping wages of its most tenured and experienced employees.



“We are loyal workers. Nothing holds us back from doing the best job possible for our patients. But, capped wages hold me back from a secure future. We’ve been letting our hospital’s administration know this must change in order for HCA-affiliated hospitals to set the standards for quality jobs in our communities," explained Janice Bregman, a monitor tech who has worked at HCA-affiliated Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg for 14 years.



The Hospital Corporation of America is the largest hospital corporation in the nation that has paid its top executives more than $150 million in the last two years.



For more than a month, 1199 members have been educating their communities with leaflets and face-to-face conversations. They are providing their communities with the hard facts about why they struggle to make ends meet: More than 300 employees in 19 HCA-affiliated hospitals represented by 1199SEIU us earn less than $10.10 an hourHCA-affiliated hospitals cap the wages of their most experienced and tenured co‐workersIn many HCA-affiliated hospitals, more than half of the healthcare workers are employed as per diem employees without benefits. about how many of us are concerned about our families’ futures, they are surprised. They think hospitals jobs are good jobs,” said Patricia Diaz, a nurse at University Medical Center in Tamarac. “The cost of living is going way up and we simply cannot survive on a 1.75% wage increase. Our goal is to raise standards so hospital jobs can create a solid middle class in our communities.”