ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Corewell Health nurses from across metro Detroit have been pushing to unionize for over year.
On Friday, majority of the nurses voted yes to being a part of the Brotherhood of Teamsters union.
The National Labor Relations Board says this was one of the largest union elections in more than 20 years.
“I feel like we need the union for a while now and enough is enough, it’s about time we get one,” said Sarah Johnson, nurse at Corewell Health Beaumont Hospital.
Sarah Johnson was one of main people who pushed for more than 9,600 nurses from Corewell Health East hospitals to unionize.
“Why did you think it was necessary for the nurses to unionize?” Tiarra Braddock asked.
“When the merger happened with Spectrum Hospital, we watched them restructure a lot of different departments, lots of budgets cuts were happening, we felt like we weren’t supported anymore,” said Johnson.
Johnson says she feels the union will help the nurses voices be heard by hospital administration.
“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 the point,” Johnson added.
Tiarra Braddock also spoke to Katherine Wallace who’s a nurse at Corewell Health’s hospital in Troy.
She told me some of the top concerns many of the nurses want to address.
“The whole movement behind being a part of the union is to promote proper care for patients, proper wages for nurses, to bring about change in the work place.. work place safety,” said Wallace.
Corewell Health sent 7 News Detroit this statement when it comes to the nurses unionization efforts.
“Corewell Health nurses in Southeast Michigan voted to be represented by the Brotherhood of Teamsters for the purposes of collective bargaining. The results are not yet certified. We value all our nurses and are committed to moving forward together, united by our mission to provide high-quality care to our patients and the communities we serve. “
Meanwhile, Sarah Johnson shared what comes next for the nurses.
“We’re going to come up with our own bylaws, get our own executive board going and start a contract from scratch so we have a lot of work ahead,” she said.
