Posts tagged Michigan Nurses Association
Michigan University Hospital, union feud over parking spots
January 28, 2025 // Labor unions typically bargain on behalf of employees over paid time off, worker pay and workplace conditions. But unions and employers also fight over unconventional issues such as the price of vending machine food and how many criminal offenses a teacher may have and stay on the job. Nurses prevailed last month in a struggle over parking lot protocols. The University of Michigan altered employee parking arrangements to create more spaces for patients. The Michigan Nurses Association in 2019 demanded that the university make more parking spaces available for nurses and requested to bargain over the issue.
Michigan’s largest unions have seen plummeting membership over the past decade
April 18, 2024 // Analysis Michigan’s largest unions have seen plummeting membership over the past decade Jobs and incomes are up, workplace injuries are down By Jarrett Skorup | April 16, 2024Share on FacebookShare on X Photo by Kateryna Babaieva on Pexels In recent years, most of Michigan’s largest labor unions saw massive declines in membership, despite significant job growth in most industries. The reason? A decade with right-to-work law, which gave workers the ability to choose whether to join a union, as a member or through a fee, or not. The reports many labor unions are required to file with the federal government reveal the state of labor union membership, as do reports from the Michigan Civil Service Commission. Every one of Michigan’s 15 largest unions or so has seen a decline, whether in state government, schools, local government, or private industries such as construction or food service. But the declines are uneven. A variety of AFSCME associations, representing mostly state and local government workers, have seen a loss of more than half their members. The SEIU, which mostly represents workers in health care and local government, is down nearly 70%. Despite job gains in the auto sector over the past decade and a highly publicized strike last year, the UAW branches in Michigan have lost 16,000 members over the past decade. Other private sector unions have seen fewer losses. These include the United Food and Commercial Workers (-8.7%), Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters (-6.8%), the Operating Engineers (-2.5%) and Michigan Nurses Association (-3.7%). Losses in the public sector are much more pronounced than those in the private sector. The Michigan Education Association has now lost more than 38,000 members, or one-third, since the right-to-work law went into effect in 2013. The American Federation of Teachers branch, the bulk of which is in the Detroit Federation of Teachers, is down more than 25%. The Michigan public school system added 27,000 employees since 2012, but its largest employee unions have lost a combined 45,000 members. The total number of public sector union members in Michigan has dropped by 80,000 since the right-to-work law was passed. Unions representing state of Michigan employees are down by more than one-third. That may soon change. The Democratic-led Michigan Legislature repealed the state’s right-to-work law in 2023. The UAW and other unions representing workers for private employers can now require them to rejoin or pay fees. A 2018 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court means that public sector employees such as schoolteachers still have the right to decline paying or joining a union. Repealing the law is expected to boost union membership and financial support for the Democratic Party. In fighting in 2012 against a law allowing workers to opt out, SEIU Healthcare Michigan President Marge Faville said unions needed the forced funds to “make sure Democrats get [elected].” Just before legislators voted to enact a right-to-work law, a local Michigan Education Association leader sent an email out on a public server to tell other public school employees that “[emergency management] is the future in Michigan with a Republican governor and Legislature” and union members need to “[get] everyone we know to vote for Democrats.”
Sault Saint Marie nurses strike for fair pay amid negotiation standoff
April 16, 2024 // "Overall, the movements we have shown throughout the negotiations have been monumental and where the MNA began was an unrealistic starting position. For example, when our negotiations got off the ground in November, the MNA was looking for top of scale nurses to be paid at $51.30 per hour in year one alone. Their most recent proposal from earlier this month was $48.92 ($2.38 difference). By comparison, we first offered $40.85 in January, increased to $42.19, and on April 3, the Medical Center increased again to $44.77. That means the Medical Center increased its offer by $3.92 over a similar time period. And they responded to this by walking away from the table.
Michigan: Bill requires employees to give home address, phone number to unions
April 20, 2023 // A Michigan Senate bill currently under consideration aims to require employers to share employees' name, home address, cell phone number, work address location, and personal email address with labor representatives every 90 days. Sen. John Cherry, D-Flint, sponsored Senate Bill 169. “The intent here is to make sure that individuals who are legally required to represent employees have the information on who they are actually required to represent and the ability to contact them and fulfill their requirements of representation,” Cherry said during Thursday testimony in front of the Senate Labor Committee. Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, said the bill is an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” Albert said there were no additional safeguards to protect personal information, and added that a bill substitute that wasn’t adopted yet also aimed to divulge employee wage to unions too.
More Than 140,000 Michiganders Have Left Their Unions Since 2012
December 14, 2022 // Unions have lost more than 143,000 members since Michigan’s right-to-work law went into effect, according to analysis of state and federal reports from 15 major unions. Numbers compiled by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy found that there are 26.5% fewer people paying dues to the state’s largest unions today than there was in 2012. “As the new Legislature debates whether to repeal Michigan’s right-to-work law, they should wrestle with the fact that the law is overwhelmingly popular — supported by Michigan voters 3-to-1 — and that more than 143,000 people have decided their union wasn’t working for them,” said Jarrett Skorup, senior director of marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center. “Forcing many of these workers back into unions against their will is bad policy and a violation of their rights.”