Sparrow nurses union files unfair labor practice charge against health system
Ken PalmerLANSING – After months of acrimony surrounding unfruitful contract talks, Sparrow Hospital's largest employee bargaining unit is asking federal arbiters to rule the hospital out of order.
The Michigan Nurses Association, which includes the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday, claiming the hospital has repeatedly violated federal law.
"We are completely fed up with the anti-union attitude Sparrow executives have taken," local union official Jessica Lannon said in a news release. "They keep trying to silence the voices of caregivers. Sparrow's administration has crossed the line too many times and must be held accountable."
Lannon is grievance chair for PECSH-MNA, which represents about 2,200 workers across 53 job classifications, including nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists, social workers and therapists. The unit's contract expired Oct. 30.
Among other things, the union claims the hospital "abandoned the safe staffing concerns process" during the old contract period, interrogated staff about union activity and refused to share financial information with the union.
Sparrow issued a brief statement on Wednesday evening.
"We are reviewing the complaint and will respond as appropriate," spokesman John Foren said. "However, we dispute all allegations in the (NLRB) complaint."
Union leaders have said they want the hospital to address what they called critically low staffing levels that threaten patient care at the Lansing-based health system, which operates seven hospitals in mid-Michigan.
They also are seeking higher wages, better health insurance rates and guaranteed access to personal protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, to care for patients with COVID-19.
About 1,000 workers staged an informational picket outside the main hospital on Nov. 3
In Wednesday's release, the union said more than 96% of bargaining unit members supported authorizing the bargaining team to call for a strike during a five-day voting period that ended Sunday. Nearly 90% of the membership participated in the vote, it said.
The union has said it would provide a 10-day notice before setting a strike date.
Following the vote, Sparrow made a new proposal with improved wages, but it did not include guaranteed access to PPE and would "dramatically" reduce the number of sick days available to caregivers, PECSH- MNA said.
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The health system has said it is committed to finding collaborative ways to address staffing challenges while giving caregivers competitive pay and benefits.
Administrators have proposed increasing weekend differential pay, paying bonuses for exemplary attendance, maintaining all benefits, boosting the pool of supplemental float nurses and holding the line on health insurance premiums for 2022.
The hospital also said it has proposed a 12% wage increase over the proposed 3-year life of the contract.
On Wednesday, union leaders said Sparrow has vowed to cut health care and other benefits for caregivers if they go on strike. They also said the hospital hired a law firm specializing in "union avoidance" before contract negotiations began.
"Sparrow's actions can have real consequences for our patients," Jen Ackley, a nurse who sits on the elected bargaining team, said in the release. "They should be spending less time illegally trying to silence us and more time trying to work with us."
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.