(CBS DETROIT) – More than 9,000 nurses working for nine Corewell East hospitals could soon become part of Teamsters, which would be the third-largest unionization effort in the United States in the past five years.
This comes after the nurses submitted enough interesting cards to the National Labor Relations Board, which then approved the right to hold a formal vote.
“Based on the number of tickets we’ve gotten for union authorization at Teamsters, the percentages are very good,” said Katrina Wallace, who works at Corewell Hospital in Troy. “We do this for the patients.”
Wallace, who organized the effort, said the hospital’s staffing has been inadequate for some time. She says this has led to reduced quality of patient care and overworked nurses who have no protection if exhaustion leads to a malpractice case.
“We could lose our licenses,” Wallace said. “No one wants a mistake to happen, but when you’re exhausted, things can go wrong. That’s why we need a fully staffed hospital, but instead we have corporate greed.”
Wallace said there is still an uphill battle ahead, and it will be difficult to get the 50 plus one votes needed to fully unify, which is required by the NLRB, because of the timing of the vote.
“We asked for mail-in ballots, but they denied us, even after hundreds of nurses sent letters explaining why,” Wallace told CBS News Detroit. “Now each of the nine hospitals in Corewell has different dates and times to do it, but they all coincide with shift changes.”
In a statement to CBS News Detroit, Corewell said:
“We respect our team members’ rights to explore unionization, but we believe that our ability to provide high-quality care to our patients and maintain a positive work environment is best achieved through a direct working relationship with our nurses.”
Wallace said she and her fellow nurses tried the way Corewell executives suggested worked best, but they are still overworked and understaffed. Therefore, she said, this vote must work in their favor.
“The union would give us the power to advocate for our patients and give us a voice in our profession,” Wallace said. “We would have 9,700 nurses behind the bargaining table. That’s a pretty powerful force.”
Walter Murphy
