Registered nurses in Flint are fighting for a fair contract and are ready to strike

Just because McLaren Flint Hospital in Michigan calls itself a nonprofit doesn’t mean its executives don’t prioritize boosting their coffers. They prioritize it so much they’re willing to put the safety of their patients at risk, according to the nurses who work there.

Last year, the hospital reported $24 million in net income, according to ProPublica. The compensation for the hospital’s president and CEO, Christopher Candela, was in the seven figures and many employees received similarly exorbitant pay packages.

Meanwhile, registered nurses at McLaren say hospital management routinely violates contractual nurse-to-patient ratios, stretching employees to the limit while putting the safety of patients at risk. That’s why as their collective bargaining agreement nears its expiration date this month, hospital employees who are members of AFSCME Local 875 (AFSCME Michigan 925) are making their voices heard.

“Our patient safety is our No. 1 concern, and to provide safe patient care we need to have the appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios,” Kelly Indish said during a solidarity march last week.

Indish, a registered nurse, is president of Local 875 and an AFSCME International vice president. She said nurses at McLaren have too many patients assigned to them at any one time, and instead of addressing the problem, management is proposing steps that would make it even worse.

“They want to take our lead RNs and place them on assignment instead of increasing the staffing as we requested,” Indish said. “That would mean fewer nurses to care for patients.”

In addition to greater patient safety, hospital employees want more affordable health insurance, higher on-call pay and modest wage increases. Indish said affordable health care is especially important for the workers because, “We as registered nurses need to be healthy in order to keep our patients and community healthy.”

But the administration doesn’t seem interested in coming to the negotiating table with serious proposals.

“They’re definitely not taking us seriously,” Indish said. “Since our solidarity walk, the employer has decided to decrease the amount of our raises and they want to take more from us to prove a point. They don’t understand that when we fight, we win.”

That’s why on the same day as their solidarity march, McLaren hospital employees voted overwhelmingly — by 96% — in favor of a strike. 

Indish, who has been president of her local for nearly a decade, says management normally “gets more serious and stops playing games” as their scheduled negotiations near an end. This time around, though, “they haven’t got there yet … and we’re at the end.”

The bargaining unit’s last scheduled sessions with management are set for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. After more than eight months of negotiations — they began back in January — this will be the administration’s last chance to get serious.