ANN ARBOR (WWJ) Contract negotiations between the University of Michigan Health System and the union representing its nurses resume today (Tuesday) about whether to authorize a work stoppage to protest work practices that the nurses’ union calls “unfair” and potentially unsafe for patients.
The Michigan Nurses Association-University of Michigan (nurses’ union), which represents about 6,200 nurses in the U-M Health System, is slated to vote from Saturday, August 27 to Friday, September 2.
“We take any potential work stoppage very seriously, and it’s unfortunate we’ve been pushed to this point,” Renee Curtis RN, president of the nurses’ union, said in a press release. “We cannot stand by, though, while the university continues to violate our rights and break the law.”
The nurses have been working without a contract since the start of July.
The vote comes as nurses say the university health system has refused to bargain over a “pattern of unfair labor practices by the university,” including failing to mitigate “unsafe workloads,” according to the nurses’ union. The nurse’s union filed a lawsuit against the U-M Health System regarding the refusal on Monday.
“When nurses are forced to take care of too many patients at once, patient care gets compromised and nurses are put in danger of injury or burnout, and that’s happening far too often at our hospital,” Curtis said.
The nurses’ union said, in their press release, that scientific research has long correlated “inadequate” nursing care and nurse-to-patient ratios to preventable infection, falls and deaths.
The nurses’ union said they have filed nearly 1,100 cases with hospital management this year, documenting potentially “unsafe situations.” That is 100 more cases than in 2021.
“…Our union is about fighting for patient safety, first and foremost,” Curtis said. “It’s absurd to think conversations about how to keep patients safe can be effective without taking about nurses’ workload.”
In a statement, U-M Health System said they planned to defend themselves “vigorously” against the lawsuit.
“University of Michigan Health makes staffing determinations with patient safety at the forefront of its decisions, and this has produced outstanding safety results,” the Health System wrote.
They added they have received a number of accolades including: U.S. News and World report naming it Michigan’s #1 hospital, and the Leapfrog Group (“an independent national watchdog organization”) giving them an “A” patient safety grade each year for a decade.
“We continue to bargain in good faith!” The Health System wrote.
They said some of their recent highlights of their negotiations with the nurse’s union included a 6% pay raise for nurses in their first year, and 5% for three years following, representing a total of 21% base pay increase: and “safely” eliminating mandatory overtime.
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The union and the health system have a complicated relationship: including two additional pending lawsuits the union filed against U-M. One alleged retaliation against nurses who participated in union activity on their unit, and the other was over changes made to employee parking without bargaining.