Dozens of caregivers, support staff, and community members gathered outside HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee and HCA Florida Woodmont Hospital in Tamarac on Wednesday, picketing for safe staffing levels and higher wages as months of contract negotiations with HCA Healthcare dragged on. The informational pickets ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at both locations, part of a coordinated action spanning 19 HCA facilities statewide.
The demonstrations come as 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which is negotiating a new three-year contract with HCA Healthcare, pushes back against what workers describe as an inadequate offer. Elliot Buback, a patient transporter at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, said the current contract offer falls short and told WFTV that transparency between the company and workers is poor, adding that communication from the company during bargaining has been limited. Per the union, HCA has offered a 2.5% raise in the current round of talks, a figure workers say fails to keep pace with inflation or reflect the demands of their jobs.
Staffing and Pay Concerns Take Center Stage
Worker retention has become a growing concern at HCA facilities, and union representatives identified 401(k) policies and seniority caps as unresolved negotiation issues. Aneal Ahmed, a clinical pharmacist at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, said safe staffing is necessary for workers and patients in his community. Union leaders have argued that safe staffing and competitive wages are critical not just for employees but for patient safety and community health, and some HCA employees say they have struggled to afford basic living expenses on current pay.
Osceola's HCA facility is a 404-bed acute care teaching hospital and Level II Trauma Center that operates in partnership with the UCF College of Medicine, serving surrounding communities including St. Cloud, Celebration, and Poinciana, according to Becker's Hospital Review. In Broward County, HCA Florida Woodmont Hospital — previously known as University Hospital and Medical Center — is a 317-bed facility with specialized emergency, orthopedic, and spine care units that has served South Florida residents for more than 45 years.
An AI Scheduling Tool Becomes a Flashpoint
Beyond wages, the union has zeroed in on Timpani, HCA's AI-driven scheduling system, which 1199SEIU says was co-developed with data analytics firm Palantir. In formal contract proposals submitted during negotiations that began in April, the union alleged the system caused unauthorized schedule changes, wage losses, and improper denial of paid time off, according to 1199SEIU.
The dispute traces back to July 2023, when 1199SEIU members voted nearly unanimously to ratify the three-year collective bargaining agreement now expiring, a deal that established an updated wage scale and across-the-board raises covering roughly 10,000 Florida hospital workers. As Florida's largest healthcare union, 1199SEIU represents more than 25,000 nurses, technicians, dietary aides, and support staff across over 100 hospitals and long-term care facilities statewide, including workers at HCA, Tenet, and University of Miami Hospital.
Executive Pay Gap Fuels Union Arguments
Union leaders say HCA reported more than $6.7 billion in profit in 2025, a figure that aligns with the company's own fiscal 2025 Form 10-K filing with the SEC showing $75.6 billion in total revenue and $6.78 billion in net income, a 17.8% increase over the prior year. Union leaders also said the HCA CEO received more than $25 million in total compensation last year, and separately calculated that it would take median employee pay hundreds of years to match that sum.
An SEC proxy statement put CEO Sam Hazen's 2025 total compensation at $26.46 million, yielding a 420-to-1 pay ratio against the health system's median employee earnings of $62,955 — a gap that has widened from 391-to-1 in 2024 and 356-to-1 in 2023, per Becker's Hospital Review. HCA remains the largest for-profit hospital operator in the country, running 190 hospitals and roughly 2,500 ambulatory care sites across 19 states and the United Kingdom, with more than 316,000 active staff members as of the end of 2025, according to the company's SEC filings.
Hospital Says Care Was Unaffected
HCA Healthcare said patient care was unaffected by the rallies and expressed hope for a fair and reasonable contract resolution. Victoria Heller, director of media relations for HCA Healthcare's North Florida division, said the hospital will prioritize the health and well-being of patients, caregivers, and colleagues. The pickets were held under contractual terms that give union members the right to hold informational pickets during renewal negotiations when mediated policy disputes remain unresolved, without triggering a work stoppage, according to 1199SEIU's bargaining records.
The negotiations have continued for months without resolution. Meanwhile, HCA's own financial disclosures show rising cost pressures elsewhere in its business — the company's estimated first-quarter uncompensated care costs climbed to $1.25 billion in 2026, up from $1.05 billion in the same period last year, driven by an increase in uninsured patient admissions following the expiration of enhanced federal ACA tax credits, per Stock Titan.
