Ascension and CommonSpirit nurses, Maryland Catholic Labor Network call on U.S. bishops to hold Catholic hospital chains accountable to church directives

Ascension and CommonSpirit nurses and Catholic allies urge executives to respect nurses' right to organize and bargain in good faith, prioritize patient safety

Registered nurses from Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Md., together with nurses from other Ascension and CommonSpirit facilities across the country and members of the Maryland Catholic Labor Network, will hold a rally outside the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) annual assembly on Nov. 12 in Baltimore, Md. They will highlight how Ascension and CommonSpirit, the country's largest Catholic health care systems, have failed to follow USCCB directives to Catholic health care organizations to both serve and advocate for patients "at the margins of society" and "treat its employees respectfully and justly."

"In my 10 years working at Saint Agnes Hospital, I have seen Ascension drift farther and farther away from its mission," said Nicki Horvat, an RN in the neonatal intensive care unit and member of the Saint Agnes bargaining team. "Ascension claims to 'advocate for a more just society,' but at our hospital and at Ascension facilities across the country, patients suffer the indignities of chronic unsafe staffing due to Ascension's relentless pursuit of profit." 

Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital nurses have been in negotiations since February 2024, following a successful union election in November 2023. Ascension has failed to bargain in good faith with the nurses to improve safe staffing and protect patients from cuts to services, lawsuits for billing disputes, and surprise billing or excess charges. In September, Saint Agnes nurses held a rally highlighting Ascension's questionable investments, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, in weapons manufacturing; alcohol; gambling; and oil, gas, and mining industries that appear to reject the Vatican's investment guidance. Ascension made over $900 million in profits in the 2025 fiscal year.

Who: Ascension Saint Agnes registered nurses, joined by Ascension and CommonSpirit nurses from Kansas and Texas, the Maryland Catholic Labor Network and elected officials
What: Rally to call on U.S. bishops to hold Ascension and CommonSpirit accountable to Catholic values.
When: Tuesday, Nov. 12 - 11 a.m to 12 p.m.
Where: Waterfront Marriott | 700 Aliceanna St., Baltimore, Md.

Saint Agnes nurses, who are members of National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), will be joined by union nurses from Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita, Kan. and Ascension Seton in Austin, Texas.

In the last four years, more than 2,500 nurses across four Ascension facilities have taken historic collective action - organizing unions and going on strike - due in part to the startling contradictions between Ascension's stated religious mission and its treatment of the communities it serves and employs. 

Ascension is not alone in its deep contradictions between its purported mission and actions. For years, nurses at CommonSpirit's St. Joseph Health in Bryan/College Station, Texas have experienced deteriorating safety conditions and an increasingly profit-driven approach by CommonSpirit executives, leading them to organize with NNOC/NNU. CommonSpirit has made over $1.6 billion in profits over the last year. In response, CommonSpirit executives unleashed a punishing anti-union campaign to harass, intimidate, threaten, and misinform nurses.

"Nurses at St. Joseph have faced years of chronic understaffing, which compromises patient care and worsens patient outcomes," said Sandy Reding, RN at CommonSpirit's Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and president of NNOC. "To have CommonSpirit executives unleash such a punitive and aggressive anti-union campaign against nurses organizing to better patient care is unconscionable. Instead of listening to nurses, CommonSpirit is harassing and surveilling nurses who talk to their coworkers about the benefits of a union and are holding around-the-clock captive audience meetings to intimidate and threaten nurses."

"Tragically, the nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes in Baltimore and the CommonSpirit-owned St. Joseph Health in Bryan-College Station, Texas are having their rights trampled by brutal anti-union campaigns waged by their employers," said Fr. Ty Hullinger of Our Lady, Queen of Peace parish in Middle River, Md. and member of the Maryland Catholic Labor Network. "Ascension and Common Spirit are among the largest Catholic hospital corporations in the nation, and yet today they still refuse to abide by the Catholic Church's own doctrine on the rights of their workers to organize, a right that has been consistently taught by every Pope from Pope Leo XIII in 1891 to Pope Leo XIV in 2025. Now is the time for Ascension and CommonSpirit to abide by the clear and consistent moral teachings and ethical directives of the Catholic Church and negotiate in good faith and cease their anti-union tactics which violate the letter and spirit of the Church's ethical and social teachings."

In 2024, Archbishop Borys Gudziak and Chairman of USCCB's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development issued a statement that declared "the essential role labor unions can and often do play in society must be acknowledged and affirmed." Despite this, Ascension continues to delay contract negotiations with Saint Agnes nurses and attack union nurses across the country. These attacks include the unlawful termination of Austin nurses and disciplinary threats against Baltimore nurses. Department of Labor statistics show that Ascension spent more than $1.2 million on anti-union consultants in 2023 alone.

"The Catholic Labor Network stands with nurses seeking to ensure both their own dignity and the safety of their patients," said Chuck Hendricks, president of the Catholic Labor Network. "Catholic Social Teaching is clear: Workers have a God-given right to organize, and employers have a moral duty to bargain in good faith. When Catholic hospitals spend their resources on union-busting instead of dialogue, they not only undermine that teaching-they endanger the very mission of healing that defines their ministry. Genuine partnership with nurses at the bargaining table is how Catholic institutions can truly uphold their sacred commitment to protect life, serve the vulnerable, and advance the common good."

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.