Editor's Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. The end of the strike was originally reported to end Friday morning. The end of the strike has been corrected below is Saturday morning. Additionally, the nurse who is quoted in this story, Ashley Dawdy, was originally misspelled and mispronounced during the broadcast. This has also been updated in the transcript below.
David Nicholas: Calls for safer working conditions rang out in front of MyMichigan Medical Center Sault today. Dozens of nurses went on strike, demanding a new union contract. MyMichigan Health and the union have been working without a contract since the beginning of the year and have been unable to reach a new agreement after 14 rounds of negotiations.
Nurses say staffing at the hospital is in crisis and the latest contract offer does not improve wages and benefits enough to recruit and retain staff. Joining me in studio, WCMU's news director Rick Brewer, and before we get started, we do note that MyMichigan Health is a financial supporter of this station.
Rick, thanks for being here. Let's start off with the working conditions. What are the nurses saying about the day-to-day operations?
Rick Brewer: Well, I've been talking to a lot of nurses over the course of several weeks, David, in the lead up to this strike. And at the end of the day, they're all saying very similar things. They do not have the proper staff to fill shifts. They say they're being stretched way too thin.
One nurse I spoke with told me that management has asked her to quote "get creative" when it comes to finding ways to get these shifts covered in places like the ER and maternity ward.
Several nurses have described the situation, as you mentioned, David to be in crisis and they also say that nurses are leaving in droves because of this. I recently spoke with Ashley Dawdy, an ER nurse at the hospital. This is how she described the staffing situation and how it is impacting her work.
Ashley Dawdy: It is so stressful...So stressful because there is such a propensity for things to go wrong very quickly in the emergency department, something small could come in that could escalate into things that you weren't expecting. And if you don't have the staff to handle it, you don't have the resources to handle it. Your outcomes are a lot more poor. There have been nights where we have had people in the lobby for four, five, six hours at a time before we can get them back not because we don't have the beds for them, but because we don't have the staff to take care of them.
And the Michigan Nurses Association, which is the union that represents these nurses, says the contract proposal that MyMichigan is giving them is just simply not enough to really recruit and retain to address this issue.
Nurses in the picking line, David, were saying you say safe, I say staffing, safe staffing, safe, staffing. So, at the end of the day, it is all about trying to increase staffing. And it is worth noting that MyMichigan says the contract offer they have presented the union is fair and reasonable, is respectful, and they do respect the nurse's right to strike.
DN: Well, that's present conditions, but we know too that there's also allegations of anti-union behavior being made by the Michigan Nurses Association as well. There at MyMichigan Health. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
RB: Yeah. The union has asked the National Labor Relations Board to investigate the union's informational picket they hosted on March 12. They claimed that they were illegally surveilled during this informational picket.
They also claim that administrators are discouraging nurses from joining the union during ongoing negotiations. The Michigan Nurses Association also claims that the hospital quote illegally threatened and retaliated against the union president for bringing an unfair labor practice charge by serving her subpoena for her personal cell phone and all correspondence between her and federal investigators.
DN: And at this point, then, how has MyMichigan responded to the accusations?
RB: They said they're unaware of any of the details of these incidents and said they've asked the union several times to give them specific instances of these so-called unfair labor practices, and they say the union is unable to come up with anything.
Kevin Kalchik, president of MyMichigan Medical Center Sault, said a strike doesn't change the proposal we have on the table and that we believe to be more than fair increase in wages. That will provide all the nurses a significant increase in their compensation. And just for a quick run down there, they originally started negotiations at $37.00 an hour. That latest offer includes an hourly wage of $44.77 an hour.
DN: And so at this juncture, then, and I believe we have an understanding, it's going to be a planned five-day strike. What are you then going to be watching in these coming days now that it's underway?
RB: That's right, David. It is scheduled to end Saturday morning. The Union is expected, though at the bargaining table on Thursday with MyMichigan Health.
So, in theory the strike could end Thursday as well. I will be watching for that, of course. It is also worth noting that MyMichigan Medical Center Soo remains open during the strike and that all services are going on as normal.
The hospital reported that they delivered a baby today. They had three urgent operations as well, and nurses across MyMichigan network have been filling empty shifts and been traveling to the Sault. I will also be looking forward to seeing if the National Labor Relations Board posts any results from their investigation into the alleged unfair labor practices.
DN: That's WCMU's news director Rick Brewer. Rick, thanks for your reporting on this.
RB: Good to be with you, David.
