University of Michigan Medical Center | Laina G. Stebbins
Nearly 2,700 health care workers at Michigan Medicine voted over the last two weeks to authorize the issuance of notice for a one-day strike.
Represented by SEIU Healthcare Michigan, over 98% of those workers who cast ballots indicated approval for the union’s negotiating committee to issue the notice, according to a press release.
“We had our retirement frozen during COVID, and we had our raises frozen for two years during COVID, and we did that willingly so that we could deliver for our patients,” Kasey Helton, an admissions triage associate, told the Michigan Advance. “But now we’re in a time of institutional gains, and it’s time to restore those benefits to make support workers that are the foundation of this team, to make us whole, to restore what we sacrificed so that we can achieve a fair contract along with all the other workers that have that today.”
The union’s demands include:
Wage increases that retain workers who worked through the pandemic (and had their retirement and wages frozen in 2020), as well as making sure no worker is paid less than $20/hour.
Parity with other unionized workers
Equity so that lower wage workers pay the same percent of their income on health insurance and parking as high-income employees.
Gabby Jones-Casey, director of strategic campaigns for SEIU Healthcare Michigan, said the strike authorization should serve as a wake-up call to health system administrators that the people they rely on are struggling.
“I think at this moment they have an opportunity to do the right thing and ensure that we don’t have workers having to sell plasma to pay their bills, to keep their lights on,” said Jones-Casey. “That we don’t have workers who are working 15, 20, 30, 40 hours of overtime to be able to keep up with the cost of living at a multi-billion dollar organization. I think it is fundamental problem when you have workers who are providing exceptional care and talk about how University of Michigan is a premier institution, and thus they should set the standard much higher for the workers that actually do the work that make them able to say that they are a premier institution for providing of health care services.”
In response to the strike authorization, Mary Masson, Michigan Medicine’s senior director of public relations, told the Michigan Advance that they are confident that an agreement can be reached without a work stoppage.
“We are committed to continuing our collaborative discussions with the SEIU bargaining committee members that represent our valued patient care teams and play an important role in health care delivery. Regardless of the vote outcome, patients can continue to expect to receive the same high-quality care at our hospitals and health centers. We are confident in our ability to ensure safe staffing levels,” said Masson.
The workers, which include respiratory therapists, ECMO specialists, phlebotomists, patient care technicians, inpatient unit clerks and clerical staff, formed their union in two stages, with the first unit recognized by the University in July 2023, which began bargaining approximately a year ago. The second unit voted to join in March 2024 and joined in the negotiations.
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