MICHIGAN
UAW, nurses union form new alliance
When health care workers at hospitals are understaffed and overworked, patients pay the price.
That’s about to change with a new partnership between the UAW and the Michigan Nurses Association: the MNA-UAW HealthCare Workplace Alliance. The two organizations will give workers one strong voice in organizing and bargaining contracts.
“This is an exciting new initiative by two awesome labor organizations, each with a proud history and a great future,” said UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, who directs the union’s Technical, Office and Professional Department, announcing the alliance Jan. 24 at the Walter P. Reuther Archives in Detroit. “We are here today in this repository of history because health care workers in Michigan are eager to create some history of their own.”
Bunn said far too many health care workers in Michigan don’t have a voice on the job, dignity in the workplace and decent compensation.
Muhammad Qawwee, a pharmacy technician and unit chair at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital, has seen the gains of having a voice on the job.
“When workers have a union contract and are more secure in their jobs, they provide better patient care,” said Qawwee, a UAW Local 4911 member.
Naomi Harris, a customer service representative at the Henry Ford Clinic in Detroit, agrees.
“Everyone knows the cost of health care is a big issue, but you can’t fix the issue on the backs of health care workers,” said the UAW Local 600 member.
The alliance is not a merger. The MNA and UAW will remain separate organizations, each with its own members and officers, and operating under its own constitution.
The UAW represents thousands of health care workers in several states, including 50 Michigan workplaces such as Sparrow Hospital, Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital, the Blue Care Network, Henry Ford clinics and others.
