It is Labor Day in Flint, and Unions are More Important Than Ever

What is widely considered the first major victory for unionization in the country happened in Flint in 1936. So it is fitting, on Labor Day in the Flint area nearly a century later, more than 600 nurses and their families are assembled outside of Genesys Henry Ford Hospital striking for safer working conditions for nurses and the patients they serve. 

“The reason we’re out here is patient safety,” said Patricia Pierce, who has been a nurse for 23 years and is the chief steward at Teamsters Local 332, the union representing the Genesys Henry Ford nurses. “The hospital’s been running us over ratio, which we have ratios in our contract. That’s the number of patients one nurse has at a time. For example, our ratio on MedSurg is one nurse to four or five patients, and they’re sometimes running them up to 12 patients each. They can’t get their work done, they can’t take care of their patients the way the patients need to be taken care of. It’s unsafe for the patients and for the nurses.”

Pierce also pointed out that, in addition to the safety of patients, nurses have to be licensed with the state of Michigan, so a mishap or accident caused by having too high a patient load would put individual licenses in peril. She added that non-competitive bonuses, overtime, and other incentives make it hard to fill open roles and reduce the patient-nurse ratio.

“Healthcare can’t be about money,” said Pierce, who doesn’t feel that negotiations with the hospital have been in good faith. “We have to put patient safety first. We would like them to come to the table and honestly consider where they are and what it takes to get this hospital back to where it used to be. That’s the reason we’re here.”

The Henry Ford Genesys nurses are not the only local group in the midst of a labor dispute. Paraprofessionals in Grand Blanc’s school district are working without a contract and picketed in late August to bring attention to the issue and their desire for higher wages. And Mott Community College’s faculty union, the Mott Community College Education Association (MCCEA), has been in the midst of an often contentious relationship with the college’s elected board and decisions it has made over the past two years.

There is currently a union grievance filed against the board relating to the hiring of a new president for the college. The grievance alleges that the college didn’t follow the union contract in its search process. There is also active litigation. A judge dismissed an initial filing by the faculty union, but that has since been appealed.

The grievance and legal battles could take months for a resolution, but in the meantime, Mott’s faculty union has been able to work with the administration on other vital matters. They recently agreed to a new contract that, among other things, found common ground on pay and some teaching policies. 

“The way that I always approach it is where we can find common ground, we will work with you,” said Brian Littleton, who is currently the head of the MCCEA and has been a faculty member at Mott for 11 years. “We will never agree on certain issues. It’s just about following fair workplace rules that are established and policies that we have. We were able to eventually find common ground with the administration pertaining to our wage increase and get something done where we worked together collaboratively to come up with an agreement.”

One thing that Littleton has been pleased with even with an often acrimonious relationship with the board is the unifying effect it has had on faculty – which is exactly what unions exist to create.

“I’m most proud of just the fact that collectively, I feel that we’re really in it together,” he said. “I’ve only been here 11 years, but I have not seen faculty united before the way we are now. We had a vote of no confidence in the board in December, and it was like over 90 percent. That’s rare you can get 90 percent of people to agree on anything.”

Bigger picture, Littleton said that unions everywhere are vital and also that they need to be “a little more boastful” about their accomplishments for the employees they represent as a way to drive membership and stress their importance. In his leadership role, he tries to communicate to members as much as possible and keep them informed in multiple ways. 

“We need labor unions now more than ever,” Littleton said. “The middle class is being decimated, and we know from history that the middle class does better when we have strong labor unions.”

For striking nurses at Henry Ford Genesys, they also have an eye on the larger message about the need for strong organized labor in addition to their individual pursuit of better working conditions for themselves.

“I would say this really is a message to everyone: there’s power in people,” Pierce said. “There’s power in your voice. We have a strong union here at Genesys, and we feel like we’re speaking for the entire community of nurses in Michigan.”