Nurses at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak are among the 8,000 nurses in the Corewell Health East region that are seeking to unionize this fall.
Nurses at Corewell Health’s eight Southeast Michigan hospitals filed paperwork Friday to unionize under the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The union gathered at least 50% of required signature cards from the roughly 8,000 nurses at Corewell’s hospitals in Grosse Pointe, Troy, Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Taylor, Trenton, Wayne and Royal Oak and delivered them to the National Labor Relations Board.
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The NLRB will validate the signature cards and the union will hold an official vote on whether to unionize at a later date.
The latest effort is an exclamation on years of attempts to unionize nurses at the former Beaumont hospitals. In 2019, before the merger with Corewell in 2022, nurses at the flagship Royal Oak hospital attempted to unionize under the Michigan Nurses Association, an effort that ultimately failed.
Mark Geary, senior director of communications at Corewell, told Crain’s the union’s petition to unionize the nurses appears to be invalid and the system would prefer to continue a non-union working relationship with its nurses.
“We respect our team members’ rights to explore joining a union,” Geary said in a statement. “However, we believe our ability to provide high quality care to our patients and create a positive environment is best achieved through a direct working relationship with our nurses.”
Teamsters Joint Council 43 announced the move on social media Friday afternoon and said in a post that nurses are demanding safe staffing ratios, fair compensation and a better benefits package and retirement plan as well as a stronger voice in patient care.
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“These nurses are on the front lines, caring for us when we need it most, and they know firsthand what is best for their patients,” the local union said in a Facebook post. “For these nurses, it’s not just about a paycheck — it's about putting patients over profits. Now is the time for them to receive the respect, dignity, and compensation they so rightly deserve.”
The unionization of Corewell East nurses will be the largest effort in recent memory even with rapid unionization in the health care industry.
More than 2,300 healthcare workers at Michigan Medicine unionized under the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in March. Several other unionized workers at Michigan Medicine are engaged in negotiations for new contracts as well.
In 2023, more than 900 diagnostic technologists at the system formed the United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals union, which is part of the American Federation of Teachers Local 6739.
Resident physicians and fellows at Detroit Medical Center unionized under the Alliance of Resident Physicians in June.
Unions gained power in the healthcare industry coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, where workers faced unsafe conditions and a traumatic workload as hospitals filled with sick patients.
More than 100,000 frontline healthcare workers participated in strikes in 2023 and early 2024, according to data from Chicago-based market analysis firm Union Healthcare Insight.
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