Nurses at ProMedica Hickman Hospital give contract negotiators ability to call strike

ADRIAN TWP. — Nurses at ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital have voted to give their contract negotiating team the ability to call for a strike.

The Michigan Nurses Association announced the results of the vote Tuesday as negotiations for a new contract between the MNA and ProMedica resumed, a news release from the MNA said. Of the approximately 140 nurses who work at the hospital, 98% of those who voted chose to give the registered nurses bargaining team the ability to authorize a strike.

The contract between the MNA local at Hickman Hospital and ProMedica expired Dec. 31. The nurses have been working under the terms of the expired contract, the release said.

ProMedica said it expects the hospital to stay open should the nurses go on strike.

"While the union has not presented a 10-day strike notice or notice to picket, it could do so in the near future," ProMedica said Tuesday in an emailed statement. "If a strike were to occur, we would work diligently to ensure our action plans support our commitment to providing safe, high-quality care."

"For the best health outcomes, it is important that patients in need seek care immediately," ProMedica said.

"We continue to meet with the union representative and bargaining team in hopes that they will further review the information provided and reconsider the union’s position," ProMedica said.

The MNA said ProMedica's administration is seeking "major concessions" to nurses’ retirement benefits that the union says would lead to the creation of a two-tiered system. The union also said ProMedica also is refusing to provide wages that are similar what other area hospitals are paying, which the nurses say could affect staffing levels and patient safety.

There have been 18 full-day negotiating sessions since September "that involved a lot of listening on our part," ProMedica said in its statement. Hickman Hospital administrators on Jan. 9 presented a best and final contract offer that was fair and market competitive, the statement said.

“Across Michigan and across our country, nurses have been rising up to hold healthcare executives accountable. Today, nurses at ProMedica are saying publicly and clearly that we are prepared to do the same,” Tracy Webb, RN and president of the local at the hospital and member of the elected bargaining team, said in the release. “We are worried about what will happen in the future if we do not act now. I know that voting to authorize a strike was not a decision any nurse made lightly, but we have been left with no other choice.”

“I live in Adrian. I grew up here. I work at this hospital because I love my community,” Jamie Lewis, RN, said in the release. “I want what is best for my friends and neighbors. I don’t see how our hospital will be able to thrive if ProMedica executives get the concessions they are demanding. Why would any new nurse choose to come here if they could make more money down the road?”

“Healthcare shouldn’t be treated like a business with those at the top making millions while RNs and our patients suffer,” Raquel Flores, RN, secretary of the local and member of the bargaining team, said in the release. “As a nurses’ union, we have the ability to fight for what is right. ProMedica executives are asking us to go backward. I can promise you that nurses at this hospital are united and will do what it takes to make sure that we move forward instead.”

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The MNA also filed charges of unfair labor practices against ProMedica alleging that the Toledo-based health care system that owns Hickman Hospital has engaged in bad faith bargaining in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, the MNA's release said.

"Nurses are frustrated that the hospital has failed to share critical financial information and maintained unlawful, anti-union policies, among other concerns," the MNA's release said. "RNs say that these unfair labor practices are part of what motivated their strike vote."

“I am fed up and tired of millionaire executives thinking they are above the law. They are not,” Webb said in the release. “Nurses will not allow our rights to be continually violated without taking action.”

ProMedica said Hickman Hospital leadership has been negotiating in good faith with the MNA.

Among the unfair labor practices the MNA claimed in its filing are ProMedica not providing relevant and necessary financial information after taking an inability to pay position in the contract negotiations, unilaterally changing the overtime policy and procedure in the obstetrics unit after the old contract expired, and after Sept. 28 prohibiting nurses from wearing MNA apparel in patient care areas and creating an overly broad list of immediate patient care areas. The filing, which was provided by the MNA, also claims ProMedica maintained unlawful policies regarding media relations, cellphone use, email use and message management, and acceptable use of information technology.

There were at least 27 strikes by health care workers across the United States in 2023, according to Becker's Hospital Review. Nurses went on strike at hospitals in California, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New York state, Texas, Oregon and Washington state. Those workers cited concerns about staffing, patient care, working conditions and employee retention.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Nurses at ProMedica Hickman Hospital in Adrian OK ability to strike