Nearly 10,000 Michigan nurses at Corewell Health join the Teamsters

Teamsters Joint Council 43

DETROIT—After a year of struggle to form a union at the Michigan healthcare conglomerate, Corewell Health, nearly 10,000 workers have just voted to join Nurses for Nurses, a brand new local of Teamsters Joint Council 43. The National Labor Relations Board said this victory was one of the largest union elections in more than 20 years. The nurses voted 4,958 to 2,957 in favor of unionizing, or just shy of 63%.

Kevin Moore, president of Teamsters Joint Council 43, said it is the biggest organizing victory in his 38 years with the Teamsters. “I’ve got workers from multiple other hospitals calling me, asking when is it going to be our turn? This is just the beginning,” he said.

Speaking outside of the joint council, in front of dozens of newly-minted Teamster nurses, Moore told them: “You are going to show America, and every nurse across this country, that you do matter. You will show Corewell, and every hospital conglomerate in the nation, that nurses will be heard loud and clear.”

“Despite Corewell waging one of the most expensive and aggressive union-busting campaigns we’ve ever seen, these nurses knew their value and were determined to become Teamsters,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement.

“Nurses are tired of being disrespected, paid poverty wages, and denied access to the same high-quality care that they provide,” Peter Finn, Director of the Teamsters Public Services Division said. “While this was not an easy battle, Corewell nurses channeled what it really means to be a Teamster and fought back to ensure they got the strongest possible union representation.”

Corewell was previously known as Beaumont, which had hospitals all over the metro Detroit region. They then merged in 2022 with Spectrum Health, located in West Michigan, to form the largest healthcare system in the entire Great Lakes State. Corewell Health currently employs over 60,000 workers.

Petition filed in September

The petition for the nurses’ union election was filed on Sept. 27 with the NLRB Region 7-Detroit office for 9,775 nurses at Corewell Health Southeast Michigan in Southfield. The bargaining unit encompasses all full-time and regular part-time registered nurses, including flex/contingent nurses and charge nurses, who are employed at the hospitals and facilities in Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Taylor, Trenton, Troy, Wayne, and Southfield.

Michigan healthcare workers have been on the move this year with wins being racked up all across the state. The Service Employees healthcare division, SEIU Healthcare Michigan, won a card-check organizing campaign of 2,700 workers at Michigan Medicine in April and then went on to win their first contract in October.

Home healthcare workers, who mobilized all year to reassert their collective bargaining rights after the so-called “right to work” legislation in 2012 disbanded the union, won two significant pieces of legislation—Senate bills 790 and 791—in September. These bills reestablished more than 30,000 workers’ right to collective bargaining and designated home healthcare workers as public employees. Michigan repealed the union-hated, anti-worker “right to work” law in 2023.

The Nurses for Nurses campaign has now added nearly 10,000 workers to the growing list of newly organized healthcare workers in Michigan.

“I feel like we need the union for a while now and enough is enough, it’s about time we get one,” Sarah Johnson, a nurse at Corewell Health Beaumont Hospital, told WXYZ Detroit.

“When you’re unionizing with almost 10,000 nurses and you’re united with solidarity, you have a very strong collective voice, they’re forced to listen to us at this point.”

Robert Haddad, a nurse at the Royal Oak Hospital, told People’s World that there is a feeling of hope now among the Corewell Health campuses. “This is a long overdue development and will ensure the fair treatment of nurses all over the region. The union’s influence will reverberate to other hospital networks. The company tried their hardest to break up the campaign, but they were swiftly defeated,” he said.

After the historic victory, Nurses for Nurses are gearing up for the next phase of the struggle: their first contract.

Kevin Moore said the next task will be to establish a bargaining committee for the new union that incorporates members from all classifications of registered nurses at each of the Corewell Health East campuses, ensuring equal representation and the opportunity to discuss a collective bargaining agreement.

“This is a first in Michigan Teamster history: these nurses are going to be getting their own Teamster union,” he said to cheers and applause from the workers.

“We can’t allow profits to jeopardize our careers and families’ stability,” the new Nurses for Nurses union said. “This is why we are calling on you to join us to remain united and require the healthcare system we support, to support us.”

“Who are we? TEAMSTERS! What do we want? CONTRACT!” they shouted.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Cameron Harrison

Cameron Harrison is a trade union activist and organizer for the CPUSA Labor Commission. Based in Detroit, he was a grocery worker and member of UFCW Local 876 where he was a shop steward. He also works as a Labor Education Coordinator for the People Before Profits Education Fund, assisting labor organizations and collectives with education, organizing strategy and tactics, labor journalism, and trade union support.