Photo by Graham Ruttan
Nearly 10,000 Michigan nurses at Corewell Health East voted to unionize in November 2024, forming Teamsters Local 2024. It was the easiest “yes” we’ve ever said.
But almost a year after winning our union fair and square, our bosses have used every trick in the book to draw out negotiations and deny us a contract. This is exactly why we need the Faster Labor Contracts Act. This bipartisan federal legislation would ensure that once workers vote to organize, a union contract will go into effect in a timely manner.
With a combined 30 years of nursing experience across a variety of specialties like critical care and nursing education, we know firsthand that Corewell’s delay tactics are taking a toll on the people at our patients’ bedsides. Instead of respecting our victory, they have used delay as a weapon.
This is nothing new. Corewell has done everything in their power to challenge our rights to collectively bargain, including spending nearly $2 million on union-busting consultants during our organizing campaign. It’s a numbers game, and corporations like Corewell drag things out long enough in an attempt to weaken us and break our union.
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