In what Michigan Teamsters President Kevin Moore called a “resounding victory” for organized labor, about 63% of the registered nurses at eight Corewell Health hospitals in metro Detroit and its Southfield Center who voted this week supported unionization as Nurses for Nurses, a committee with the Michigan Teamsters Joint Council No. 43.
“The vote is completed, and they are now going to be represented by the Teamsters. It’s the biggest organizing victory in my 38 years with the Teamsters,” Moore said.
Sarah Johnson, 39, of Sterling Heights, (center) chants “Who are we, Teamsters,” while she marches next to Lori Greenlee, 53,of Romeo, and other Corewell Health nurses as they walk from the Teamsters headquarters to the Detroit office of the National Labor Relations Board in downtown Detroit to file their petition requesting recognition and a vote to unionize on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.
In all, 9,755 registered nurses were eligible to vote earlier this week at Corewell hospitals in Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Taylor, Trenton, Troy and Wayne and its Southfield Center, said Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the NLRB. They included full-time and part-time nurses as well as those who work on a contingency or flex basis, including charge nurses.
Of them, 8,340 cast ballots, which were tallied Friday at the National Labor Relations Board Region-7 office in Detroit.
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4,958 voted in favor of unionization.
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2,957 voted against unionization.
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418 votes were challenged and won’t be counted because they won’t change the outcome of the election.
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“Parties have five business days to file objections to the election,” Blado said. “If no objections are filed, the result will be certified.”
And after that, Corewell Health managers and the leaders of the fledgling union will have to come together to bargain a new contract.
“The employer must begin bargaining in good faith with the union,” Blado said.
Teamsters Local Union No. 337 Trustee David Hughes talks with U.S. Department of Homeland Security about filing the Corewell Health nurses petition requesting recognition and a vote to unionize to the Detroit office of the National Labor Relations Board, while Michigan Teamster President Kevin Moore, looks on, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.
In recent months, Corewell nurses have staged rallies and delivered thousands of unionization support cards to the NLRB’s Detroit office. Organizing, they said, would allow them to have more of a say when it comes to nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, job cuts, wages and benefits.
Speaking through tears Friday afternoon, union organizer Lisa Vergos Pastue told the Free Press that the outcome of this week’s election is “life changing.”
“I don’t even work there anymore, but it absolutely feels life changing,” said Vergos Pastue, a registered nurse from Warren who worked for 20 years at Corewell’s Royal Oak hospital and helped launch the organizing efforts more than a year ago. She left Corewell in March, and now works as a nurse at another metro Detroit health system.
She observed the hand-counting of the ballots on Friday, which were written on mustard yellow sheets of paper, she said.
“It was amazing, archaic, and crazy to be a part of this,” she said, “to literally sit here in a room full of colleagues and attorneys and hand count votes, one after the other. It was something.”
The next step will be to form a bargaining committee that includes members of all the classifications of registered nurses at each of the Corewell Health East campuses “so everybody is represented and we can negotiate a collective bargaining agreement for all of them,” Moore said.
Corewell Health nurses meet up in the war room at the Teamster Headquarters after delivering their petition to organize a union to Corewell Health headquarters and gather flyers to hand out, in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.
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He predicted the swell of labor support among the Corewell nurses could spark further organizing among other health care workers in the region.
“I’ve got workers from multiple other hospitals calling me today, asking when is it going to be our turn? This is just the beginning,” Moore said.
In an emailed statement, Mark Geary, senior director of communications for Corewell Health, said: “Corewell Health nurses in Southeast Michigan voted to be represented by the Brotherhood of Teamsters for the purposes of collective bargaining. The results are not yet certified.
“We value all our nurses and are committed to moving forward together, united by our mission to provide high-quality care to our patients and the communities we serve.”
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: In ‘resounding victory,’ Corewell Health East nurses vote to unionize
