‘When nurses are outside, there’s something wrong inside’: Nurses begin strike at MyMichigan Sault
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (WJMN) – Union nurses who work at MyMichigan Medical Center Sault started their 5-day strike Monday morning.
A spokesperson for the Michigan Nurses Association says they are united in their demands for a fair contract that will ensure the community can recruit and retain enough nurses. The RNs are also protesting what they view as MyMichigan’s anti-union actions that seem intended to intimidate or retaliate against them for speaking out or participating in their union.
Eastern U.P. nurses to strike over continued ‘unfair labor practices’ at MyMichigan Soo
This is our first negotiation with MyMichigan Health,” said Jillian LeBlanc, RN. “We were previously known as War Memorial. So this is all new to us. It’s our first time negotiating with MyMichigan Health as a union, and it’s been hard for us to get a fair contract to include fair market value wages similar to other MyMichigan hospitals within our own system, and in area hospitals near us. It’s been difficult. There is some, I feel tension when I’m at work. Fortunately, my manager has been neutral in it, which has been nice for me, but I’ve heard of other nurses having a hard time with their managers regarding the contract negotiations.”
MNA has filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the nurses, alleging that MyMichigan:
Tried to coerce the nurses into quitting their union;
Illegally surveilled nurses at their informational picket on March 12, assigning an excessive number of security guards who stood watching them in hospital doorways and continuously circled the event in a van;
Is bargaining in bad faith by (a) failing to adhere to status quo terms and conditions regarding nurses’ pay during bargaining and (b) refusing to provide information the union needs for negotiations;
Illegally threatened and retaliated against the union president for bringing an unfair labor practice charge by serving her a subpoena for her personal phone and all correspondence between her and federal investigators.
After a previous federal investigation, the hospital was forced to post a settlement saying it would not illegally create the impression of surveilling RNs and would not illegally discipline nurses. This was related to the hospital’s suspension of the union president for engaging in protected union activities.
“There are many things that go into job satisfaction and career choice, but certainly wages and respect go a long way,” said Jill Halsey, RN. “We don’t feel that we can appropriately recruit and retain with the current wages and benefits package that is here. That’s one of the things we are fighting for as well.”
“So I think the staffing has been such a big issue,” said Brittany Barrett, RN. “I can’t even tell you how many nurses that I’ve seen leave the hospital, leave the town over staffing issues and paying issues. I’m a nurse in the emergency department, and I can tell you that oftentimes, we can’t admit as many patients to the floor because we don’t have nurses on the floor to take care of them. Which means that patients just sit in our emergency room for even longer.”
Barrett said wait times are getting longer. “When I started working here, we hardly ever had to put people back in the waiting room. It just it was something that was pretty unheard of for our small little E.R. Now, every day we’re putting people back in the waiting room, sometimes for hours and hours at a time, because we just don’t have the staff to to take care of the patients right now.”
Nurses picket in the Sault; hospital boss says good offer is on the table. Who’s right?
Michigan Nurses Association says another bargaining session is scheduled for Thursday, April 18. The MNA nurses have offered to bargain every day during the strike. About 120 nurses work at the hospital.
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