Contact: Shar Anderson, RN, Staff Council President
Lenawee Health Alliance Registered Nurse Association
517/605-8771

OR

Lisa Harrison, Esq.
Michigan Nurses Association
517/349-5640 x38 or (cell) 517/927-6344
Lisa.harrison@minurses.org

OR

Carol Feuss, MA
Labor Communications Specialist
Michigan Nurses Association
517/349-5640, ext. 21 or (cell) 517/230-4086
carol.feuss@minurses.org

September 1, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ProMedica/Lenawee Health Alliance gives final offer to nurses

No agreement reached; picket is postponed; proposal will go to membership

Adrian, MI –No agreement was reached in the negotiations between Lenawee Health Alliance Registered Nurses and ProMedica during negotiation sessions with state and federal mediators on Wednesday and Thursday. Instead, the registered nurses, represented by the Michigan Nurses Association, were given a final offer from Lenawee Health Alliance/ProMedica management.

“The management made it clear that this was ProMedica’s final offer, so negotiations ended early. We decided to postpone the informational picket and take the offer back to our membership,” said Shar Anderson, RN Staff Council President of the Lenawee Health Alliance Registered Nurses Association.

“The bargaining team is not recommending that ProMedica’s offer be accepted,” continued Anderson. “But it is different enough from previous positions that we want to get further direction from the membership.”

The nearly 200 RNs at both Bixby and Herrick hospitals will vote on the proposed contract language in the next few weeks. At that time, they will revisit the possibility of issuing a 10-day strike notice to Lenawee Health Alliance, a member of Toledo-based ProMedica Health System. The RNs are working without a contract and voted in July to authorize a strike.

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The Michigan Nurses Association, nurses' voice for 100 years, is the largest nurses' union in the State of Michigan . The Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) promotes the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, fosters high standards of nursing practice, and lobbies the legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and recipients of nursing services. MNA is a constituent member of the American Nurses Association and the United American Nurses, as well as an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.