This week your bargaining team demanded that management agree to contract provisions that protect and improve employee and retiree benefits. Nurses deserve strong benefits both during their working life and in retirement, and the University of Michigan can afford to fund our demands.
Reflecting strong member dissatisfaction with the existing overtime/over- appointment system, we also reaffirmed our demand to eliminate mandatory overtime. While in the past, mandatory overtime has been used in response to unforeseen emergencies, it has become management’s go-to staffing solution. We made this demand as part of a broader proposal to strengthen overtime and over- appointment protections and to provide fair compensation for nurses when they do work overtime.
Our overtime/over-appointment proposal also introduces a new OT/OA trigger calculation which better reflects the pain RNs experience while working short- staffed. This robust proposal both incentivizes nurses to voluntarily pick up shifts and penalizes the employer for running units understaffed. We insist that management invest in nurse recruitment and retention rather than forcing nurses to work longer hours and face burnout, attrition, and increased risk of errors and adverse events.
We are UNITED in bargaining for a fair contract that brings workplace justice and equity to all Michigan Medicine nurses. Please sign the petition at mna- umpnc.org/sign and keep wearing RED every Wednesday to show your solidarity!