Success Stories

Largest nurse union election in recent PA history

In the Summer of 2025, the Hailstone team ran an aggressive public relations campaign supporting 900 nurses who were forming their union at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh. The strategy focused on foregrounding the voices of nurses and the community members and elected officials supporting them.

Despite a forceful anti-union campaign, we were able to completely control the public discourse. Throughout the campaign we garnered saturation-level, highly positive coverage of the nurses’ efforts to unionize in every local newspaper, TV and radio station.

UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital nurses call for union election

Tribune-Review | May 29, 2025

Magee nurses, government leaders urge UPMC to allow hospital to unionize

NPR WESA FM | June 13, 2025

The result? The nurses voted by a strong majority to unionize in the largest nurse union election in recent Pennsylvania history. This was the first time ever that nurses had successfully organized within the state's largest health system. Organizers said that consistently seeing positive press stories about nurses and their community supporters was absolutely critical to achieving their victory.

‘It’s really empowering’: Unionized Magee-Women’s Hospital nurses lead Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade

NBC 11 WPXI | Sept. 1, 2025

Sunrise-Professionals.Group-Photo-with-V

First union contract for healthcare professionals

In 2024, Hailstone ran all the communications for a union election involving 300 medical professionals at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. Despite an intense anti-union campaign by the employer, which is the largest hospital corporation in the country, professionals voted by a landslide to unionize.

Hailstone then led the PR and communications campaign to help workers win a first union contract. The employer was extremely resistant to agreeing to a contract, so our team rolled out strategies to build maximum public support. Our messaging juxtaposed “skyrocketing” CEO compensation with the struggles of frontline healthcare professionals, and the campaign included:

An avalanche of positive press coverage and booking workers on national podcasts.
A website that allowed supporters to email the CEO, resulting in hundreds of messages sent.
Community patch-through calls that delivered hundreds of calls to the CEO.
Op-eds featuring the personal narratives of frontline workers.
Extensive social media content and ads.
Mobile billboards that circled the hospitals and main streets of Las Vegas.
Manufacturing a 20-foot tall inflatable rocket which was posted outside the hospital during an informational picket to maximally amp up public attention.

The result? The employer agreed to a groundbreaking first contract with raises as high as 36%, along with other major improvements.

Sunrise Hospital healthcare workers secure first-ever union contract

ABC 13 KTNV | Oct. 7, 2025

Promoting Stanford clean energy storage study

Stanford engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson is one of the leading thinkers and advocates for the transition to a clean energy economy. Hailstone promoted his recent study showing that the transition can be both cheap and reliable through a combination of battery and hydrogen storage.

The result? Our PR campaign generated widespread attention for the study, including:

Mark Ruffalo shared our press release on X, creating tremendous buzz.

And industry media took notice:

Battery storage plus hydrogen can enable a reliable, cheap clean energy transition

PV Magazine | Feb. 7, 2024

Stanford Study Unveils Synergies of Battery Storage & Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Global Renewable Grids

Battery Technology | Feb. 14, 2024

Generating massive avalanche of international press coverage for Stop Asian Hate rally

In the summer of 2023, the Hailstone team was enlisted to bring public attention to a brutal hate crime against a 75-year-old Filipino man in Las Vegas. The local community coalition was struggling to raise awareness about the issue and the District Attorney had let the perpetrator off with only a misdemeanor, not hate crime charges. We enthusiastically answered the call, garnering dozens of local, national and international news stories, and helping to ensure justice for the victim. Our strategy included:

Connecting the individual attack to the larger national trend in rising hate crimes, in order to maximize coverage.
Extensive outreach to local, national and international press, including the Asian American Pacific Islander media.
Generating frequent, powerful social media content to amplify the press coverage.
Prepping leaders of the Filipino community with highly effective media training and talking points.

Our work generated scores of news stories with a potential audience of over 300 million people, equivalent to spending more than $700,000 in advertising dollars. Much of the press coverage ran as the top stories for newspapers and TV, day after day. Here's a small selection of media we got placed:

Asian community rallies after attack on Filipino-American resident

Las Vegas Review-Journal | June 29, 2023

Stop Asian Hate Rally takes over Clark County Regional Justice Center

NBC 3 | June 29, 2023

Viral attack on Las Vegas Filipino American prompts 'Stop Asian Hate' rally

ABC 13 | June 29, 2023

‘Loud and proud:’ Asian community stands against hate crime in Las Vegas

The Nevada Independent | June 29, 2023

Filipino American leaders to hold rally for Las Vegas senior attacked in his home

Yahoo News | June 27, 2023

The result? Because of enormous public attention and pressure, the District Attorney was forced to file felony hate crime charges against the perpetrator, who is now going through the justice system. Just as importantly, we were able to create saturation-level press coverage and awareness about the issue, sending a powerful message that all hate crimes are unacceptable.

Securing groundbreaking investment in psychiatric nursing

Everyone knows that there is a growing mental healthcare crisis in our country. In Western Pennsylvania, the largest behavioral healthcare facility was struggling with closed beds, understaffing and turnover of nurses, reducing access for patients who desperately needed care. Hailstone was brought on to lead the public relations and engagement strategy aimed at securing much more investment in frontline nurses to tackle these problems.

The Hailstone team created and carried out a comprehensive strategy, which included:

Building a coalition of psychiatrists, leading mental health researchers, elected officials and community members.
Aligning our campaign's messaging with the larger trend of the mental health crisis.
Training frontline nurses and community members to be effective spokespeople.
Helping nurses tell their stories through multiple opinion pieces published in the major daily newspaper.
Launching a robust advertising campaign to complement the press coverage.
Repeatedly garnering massive positive press coverage in almost all local news outlets, including the major daily newspapers, the local NPR and AM radio stations and all TV stations.

UPMC Western Psych nurses warn staffing shortages degrading patient care

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Sept. 23, 2024

Western Psych nurses rally against staffing crisis, bed closures at psychiatric care facility

NPR WESA FM | Sept. 24, 2024

Nurses say Western Psych is in crisis as they push for a new contract with UPMC

City Paper | Sept. 24, 2024

The result? The campaign led to a groundbreaking three-year union contract which set the first-ever $40 starting wage rate for nurses anywhere in the employer's entire system, as well as raises up to 44%, among many other improvements. In response to this and other contract victories, the health system was compelled to then raise the starting wage rate for all nurses throughout the entire region. These incredible improvements will help to recruit and retain more nurses and address the mental health needs of the community moving forward.

UPMC nurses reach 'historic' deal: 6 things to know

Becker’s Hospital Review | Oct. 28, 2024

UPMC Western Psych nurses ratify contract, averting threatened strike

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Oct. 28, 2024

Home care workers have some of the most important jobs in the world, supporting seniors and people with disabilities. Despite their essential work, the 13,000 home care workers in Nevada have been shamefully underpaid for over a decade, with average wages stagnating at around $11 an hour.

The Hailstone team led the communications strategy to increase their wages, which included a torrent of news stories, op-eds, social media and grassroots mobilizations.

The result? In the summer of 2023, we helped achieve a historic victory by passing a $16 minimum wage for workers and a 42% funding increase for the industry through the state legislature. These changes will not only be life changing for home care workers, but will also recruit and retain the workforce to provide quality care to clients. Check out this story which we garnered in Nevada's largest newspaper:

Winning historic $16 minimum wage and funding increase for Nevada home care

Home care workers get $16 minimum wage increase in new Nevada budget

Las Vegas Review-Journal | June 12, 2023