DETROIT, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Michigan Nurses Association and the Technical, Office and Professional Department of the UAW announced today a new working partnership: the MNA-UAW HealthCare Workplace Alliance.
“We’re coming together to be a strong voice for patients and for healthcare workers,” said John Armelagos, RN, BSN, a nurse at the University of Michigan. “I was a UAW member when I worked in an auto parts plant, and I’ve been an MNA member since I became a nurse at U of M Hospital. I’m confident that combining our strength and experience in representing nurses and other healthcare workers will provide great opportunities for healthcare workers in Michigan.”
“With all of the changes going on in healthcare, workers really need a strong voice,” said Naomi Harris, a customer service representative at Henry Ford Clinic in Detroit and a member of UAW Local 600. “Everyone knows the cost of healthcare is a big issue, but you can’t fix the issue on the backs of health care workers. When we’re understaffed and overworked, it’s patients who pay the price.”
Top quality patient care will be an important priority of the new Alliance, in addition to working for dignity and decent compensation for healthcare workers.
“There are too many healthcare workers in Michigan who take care of patients every day, but who don’t have access to quality healthcare benefits of their own,” said UAW Secretary Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, who directs the union’s Technical, Office and Professional Department. “We know from experience that when healthcare workers have the security of a union contract, they can be more effective advocates for themselves, for their families -- and for their patients.”
“We’re combining the unique strengths of two very effective labor organizations,” said Cheryl Johnson, RN, president of the Michigan Nurses Association and its national affiliate, the United American Nurses. “The MNA has been representing nurses in Michigan for 100 years, and the UAW has an excellent track record of collective bargaining for many different kinds of workers. Joining forces makes sense for everyone,” said Johnson, who is also a working nurse at the University of Michigan.
Activities of the new alliance will include:
-- Joint MNA-UAW organizing campaigns. The MNA will assist RNs in forming their own bargaining units; the UAW will assist all other healthcare workers.
-- Combined MNA-UAW efforts to bargain top quality contracts for healthcare workers;
-- MNA-UAW cooperation on public policy issues affecting Michigan healthcare workers and healthcare consumers.
The Alliance is not a merger of the two organizations. The MNA and the UAW will remain separate and distinct organizations, each with its own members and officers, and operating under its own constitution.
In addition to working together to assist healthcare workers in organizing unions and bargaining contracts, the MNA-UAW HealthCare Workplace Alliance will advocate on healthcare policy issues, including expanded access to healthcare for those without health insurance; adequate funding for healthcare providers; proper staffing and limits on overtime in healthcare facilities; and improved safety standards in healthcare workplaces.
The Technical, Office and Professional Department, with over 100,000 members, is the fasting growing sector of the UAW. It includes thousands of healthcare workers in Michigan, including workers at Sparrow Hospital, Pontiac Hospital, Helen Newberry Joy Hospital, Harbor Oaks Hospital, the Blue Care Network and the Henry Ford clinics.
The Michigan Nurses Association has represented nurses in Michigan since 1904, and has been a collective bargaining organization since 1965. MNA now represents more than 60 collective bargaining units including nurses at the University of Michigan, Sparrow Hospital, Borgess Medical Center and other locations across the state. The MNA also has a strong focus on health care policy. Through the collective efforts of MNA members, nurses in Michigan helped rewrite the Public Health Code and the Michigan Mental Health Code.
The MNA has negotiated many landmark labor contracts providing unprecedented rights for nurses regarding staffing levels and patient safety, and the UAW has set the standard for collective bargaining contracts for workers in virtually every sector of the economy.
Healthcare workers can contact the Alliance through a new website at http://www.mna-uaw.org/ . Registered Nurses can call the MNA at 1-888-MI-NURSE ext. 16 (1-888-646-8773, ext. 16); all other health care workers can contact the UAW at 1-888-TOP-UAWY (1-888-867-8299).
Michigan Nurses Association
CONTACT: Carol Feuss of Michigan Nurses Association, cell:+1-517-230-4086; or Roger Kerson of UAW, +1-313-926-5538
Web site: http://www.mna-uaw.org/