Update (11/22/2021): Story has been updated to include reference to a 2PM protest site in Hamilton at the Safeway intersection.

Update (11/23/2021): Story has been updated to include reference to a 2PM protest site in Sidney at Veteran’s Memorial Park 501 S Central Ave.

Update (11/24/2021): Story has been updated to include reference to a 2PM protest site in Helena at the intersection of E Lyndale and N Last Chance Gulch, in Glendive at EPEC on Main Street, in Miles City at the corner of Stower and Haynes near Walmart, and in Kalispell at 907 S Main where 93 splits at the Court House.

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Missoula-area healthcare workers will be joining statewide protests happening in Billings, Bozeman, Glendive, Great Falls, Hamilton, Helena, Kalispell, Miles City, and Sidney on Sunday, November 28th, against COVID-19 vaccine mandates from the Biden administration and area hospitals. Protests will be happening simultaneously at 2PM statewide.

Sara Ohara, a nurse at Community Medical Center in Missoula, is organizing area healthcare workers for a protest on the sidewalk on North Reserve in front of Lowes. “Here in Montana, even though we are mostly a freedom-loving people, there are some in authority and in big business who would usurp our freedoms,” Ohara told Missoula County Tyranny. “We are rallying to say to them that we will not comply. We will not allow them to take our freedoms from us.”

The Federal Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate was halted by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals November 6th and the decision was reaffirmed by the same court on November 12th. OSHA suspended enforcement of the mandate November 18th.

However, another federal agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is moving forward with their vaccine mandate for health care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs which include most hospitals and senior facilities statewide.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a multi-state effort to challenge the CMS vaccine mandate. “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) COVID-19 vaccine mandate on facilities that receive federal funding for treating patients exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and violates the Social Security Act’s prohibition on regulations that control the hiring and firing of healthcare workers,” a November 15th press release announcing the suit stated. “It also violates multiple federal laws, the Spending Clause, the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, and the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

The AG also shared that hospitals statewide are already suffering shortages of healthcare workers, “The Vaccine Mandate threatens to exacerbate already devastating shortages in healthcare staffing by forcing small rural hospitals to terminate their unvaccinated workers,” Knudsen said.

Community Medical Center sent a notice to healthcare workers mid-November telling workers that the hospital “fully support[s] the federal vaccine mandate” and that workers would need to be vaccinated by the beginning of January or find new jobs.

One healthcare worker at Bozeman Health Deaconess helping to organize workers for Sunday’s event to be held at 19th Street and Burke in Bozeman shared that they felt betrayed by hospital administration. “I feel so used by my hospital organization. In the beginning of the pandemic, I went in to patient rooms willingly, with inappropriate PPE because it was not being provided to us,” the worker shared anonymously for fear of retaliation. “All of the emails about ‘gratitude’ toward employees feels so insincere now that they are ready take us out with the trash.”

Lee Ann Evatt, who works at Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, has been fighting the vaccine mandates since the spring and is also organizing healthcare workers in Great Falls for a protest Sunday. Workers and concerned community members will be meeting outside the Holiday Village Mall on 10th Avenue South between 9th and 13th streets at 2PM. “Benefis has been trying to mandate this since before the fight to pass HB-702 occurred,” Evatt said. “We have had community members out protesting on our behalf for months.”

Benefis Hospitals have been shedding workers since July, according to Evatt. “Before July 1st, some religious exemptions were passed and many denied so Benefis, which has three nursing homes and a home health agency, already lost many employees,” Evatt said.

According to Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services hospital capacity reports, Benefis Hospitals has lost 80 beds since September and nearly 50% of its total beds since last October. Without nurses and staff to man hospital beds, the beds have to be shutdown, reducing the hospital’s overall capacity.

Evatt said Benefis Hospital has been denying certain religious medical exemptions and providing medical exemptions only to those who experience anaphylaxis from the first COVID-19 vaccine shot. “The rest of us who filed religious exemptions were told they would keep them on file and evaluated at a later time if needed. Many of us are in limbo. The only medical exemptions they are giving is for anaphylaxis from at least one dose of the jab.”

Billings-area healthcare workers and community members will be joining the statewide protests on November 28th, meeting at the Northwest corner of 24th and King near City Brew Coffee at 2PM.

Workers and community members are being encouraged to dress warm and to bring a sign and a chair.

“We have been fighting Benefis for six months. My discrimination complaint has already been filed and if they fire me then I will file an EEOC complaint for wrongful termination since they are not allowed, by law, to judge my religious beliefs,” Evatt said. “I am to the point—fire me, because I know my God will provide.”

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November 28th Montana Vaccine Mandate Protest Locations

Missoula – November 28th @ 2PM – England and Reserve in front of Lowes

Billings – November 28th @ 2PM – NW corner of 24th and King near City Brew

Bozeman – November 28th @ 2PM – 19th Street and Burke in front of Five Guys

Glendive – November 28th @ 2pm – EPEC on Main Street

Great Falls – November 28th @ 2PM – 10th Ave S. between 9th and 13th near Holiday Village Mall

Hamilton – November 28th @ 2PM – Safeway intersection

Helena – November 28th @ 2PM – Intersection of E Lyndale Ave and N Last Chance Gulch

Kalispell – November 28th @ 2PM – 907 S Main where 93 splits at the Court House

Miles City – November 28th @ 2pm – Corner of Stower and Haynes near Walmart

Sidney – November 28th @ 2PM – Veteran’s Memorial Park 501 S Central Ave.