McLaren nurses picket for fair contract, better staffing
Update: This story has been updated to reflect further comments from OPEIU Local 459.
Registered nurse Krystal Mannor has seen her colleagues stress about having to work too much overtime while struggling to provide the best care for multiple patients at McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital.
Exhausted and anxious, the nurses are spending less quality time with their friends and families because of their hours at work, Mannor said.
"It's a physically and emotionally draining situation," she emphasized.
It's why she joined over 100 of her fellow nurses on a picket line Monday evening in front of the hospital, 2900 Collins Road. Working under expired contracts, McLaren's picketing nurses demanded a fair contract that would give them a better work-life balance.
Registered nurse Candy Higbee works at McLaren Greater Lansing in a cardiology and medical unit. Her floor is supposed to have one nurse per four patients on day shift and one nurse per five patients on night shift. Right now, she said, day shift has five patients per nurse and night shift has six to seven patients per nurse.
"The more patients we have that we're responsible for, the less we're able to do," Higbee said. "We want to be able to be there when they need whatever they need, and they're having to wait long extended periods."
Job cuts nearby:Sparrow Health System laying off hundreds of employees
Kirk Ray, McLaren's president and CEO, criticized the picket in an email for spreading "sensational, out-of-context information" to gain an advantage at the bargaining table.
He contended that union and hospital representatives have negotiated in "good faith" for several weeks and made steps toward a new contract that reduces overtime and creates paths to recruiting and retaining nurses.
"McLaren holds deep respect and appreciation for our nurses and the courage they have demonstrated in the face of mounting adversity within the health care industry," Ray wrote. "They are truly health care heroes."
According to Ray, McLaren Greater Lansing offered the union a contract that includes:
23% average wage increase over three years
Improved staffing ratios in certain areas
Elimination of mandatory overtime within a year of ratifying
Financial incentives for additional shifts
Increases for on-call pay, differentials and many premiums
Creating a tiered resource float pool to fill critical open shifts.
Ray said the offer gives nurses security and fair compensation as other hospitals in Michigan cut staff and services. In contrast, union officials aren't pleased with the offer, saying the contract won't improve the working lives of enough nurses.
Two unions are representing about 400 nurses in negotiations. The Michigan Nurses Association represents about 14 homecare and hospice workers whose contracts expired in February. The Office & Professional Employees International Union Local 459 represents about 400 McLaren nurses. OPEIU's contract expired at the end of September.
Benjamin Curl, OPEIU Local 459's senior service representative, said in an email the proposed wage increases actually equal 15.5% and nearly a third of the members don't qualify for step increases because they are at the top of the pay scale. He also said the areas that will see improved staffing are very limited since McLaren faces severe understaffing.
Curl doesn't think it's feasible for McLaren to up incentives for additional shifts as the hospital faces a staffing crisis. He said employees filled out over 1,000 short-staff reports for shifts.
"Management's proposals do not do enough to seriously recruit and retain nurses," Curl wrote. "We are hopeful to achieve this goal, but the hospital needs to be realistic about the fact that we need to do a lot more to get staff here and keep them here."
He said McLaren's compensation isn't competitive with Sparrow Health Systems' hiring rates for the same positions.
Just last week, Sparrow Health System announced hundreds of job cuts, mainly in management and non-clinical positions.
Sparrow spokesperson Corey Alexander on Monday had no further comment beyond the health system's original layoff statement.
However, Sparrow union members are concerned about the consequences of hospitals laying off staff.
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Jeff Breslin is a member of the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital — Michigan Nurses Association and a board member at the Michigan Nurses Association.
He said in a recent email to the State Journal that Sparrow's union is "alarmed" at cuts that he says will affect inpatient care like intravenous and wound care units.
"These specialized services are critical to everyday patient care and it makes no sense to cut positions on these teams," he wrote. "Nurses are already consistently short-staffed on the floors and this will stretch them even thinner while denying patients the care of those specialties."
Mannor said the unions are steadfast on bargaining new contracts with McLaren.
"The bargaining team has spent several hours and we've gone back and forth on proposals to reach that fair contract and they are not there yet," said Mannor, one of the OPEIU negotiators. "We're not there yet but we're working on getting there."
The frustration, she said, is that many of the problems from the former Greenlawn Avenue hospital transferred with McLaren's spring move to a new 53-acre hospital campus near Michigan State University.
Michelle Munson-McCorry, vice president of the association representing the homecare and hospice workers, said there’s a real concern about high caseloads and burnout.
"Most of the nurses that are a case manager (are) working anywhere from 45 to 60 hours every week, and having a caseload up to 40 patients a week, (where) the standard's probably 25 to 30 for home care," she said.
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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at (517) 267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: McLaren Greater Lansing nurses picket for better staffing, compensation
