For Immediate Release
Contact: Sara Wallenfang; 517-974-4966

RNs demand a fair contract to support their work, the University offers only cookies

(Ann Arbor, MI) This morning, more than 100 nurses showed up to protest as the University of Michigan announced the U.S. News and World Report hospital rankings. Nurses attending the reveal event refused to sit down or have a cookie. They also chanted in support of including safe, transparent staffing levels in their union contract.

“At the reveal party, Chief Nurse Executive Ann Scanlon McGinity claimed that we already have superior RN staffing levels. Nurses responded by asking her to guarantee those staffing levels in writing for the safety of future patients,” said Ted McTaggart, RN and Secretary of the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council, which is an affiliate of the Michigan Nurses Association.  “I want our hospital to remain a national leader in quality care. That is why I showed up to question the hospital’s increasingly corporate and profit-driven priorities.”

“We are a nationally recognized hospital, number five in the nation according to U.S. News, because nurses provide outstanding care,” said McTaggart. “Cookies are nice, but nurses deserve a fair contract.”
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Photos from this morning’s action are available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b6ywfx7a8iu9a9u/AABmORv897NGIIqM6U446tIda?dl=0

Despite a surplus of more than $100 million in 2018, University of Michigan management is seeking cuts that could negatively affect patients.

As part of their union contract, nurses want the University to:

• Maintain current staffing levels and safe RN workloads so that every patient gets the highest quality of care
• Be transparent about staffing levels because patients have a right to know
• Allow nurses to choose their own representatives on workplace committees so that they can voice patient safety concerns
• Ensure that the Victors Care program, concierge medicine for those who can afford to pay $3,600 extra per year, does not create a two-tier system with longer wait times or less access for other U of M patients
• Stop demanding unnecessary retirement concessions from nurses

Nurses are currently pursuing unfair labor practice charges against the University. Details can be found at: https://www.minurses.org/news/michigan-medicine-breaks-a-written-commitment-to-maintain-current-rn-staffing-levels/

Nurses are also running ads on cable television, radio and online: https://www.uofmwatch.org/

The Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) is the largest, most effective union for registered nurses in Michigan, advocating for nurses and their patients at the State Capitol, in the community, and at the bargaining table.

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