The Detroit News Published 4:47 PM EST Nov 9, 2018 Nurses at the Detroit Medical Center’s Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital voted to ratify a contract, becoming the first nurses at the eight-hospital health system to unionize. The contract was won after a bitter two-year battle that began when the 350 Huron Valley-Sinai nurses voted to organize under the Michigan Nurses Association in March 2016. They argued that insufficient staffing and other issues threatened quality of care at the 158-bed facility in Commerce Township. The contract includes safe staffing language to protect patients, wage increases to retain nurses and job protections, the union said Friday. The three-year agreement takes effect immediately and is retroactive to Sept. 1. “I am so proud of what nurses achieved by forming a union and sticking together. For the first time, we have a grievance procedure with enforceable contract language on professional development, health and safety,” Judy Moore, a nurse and bargaining team member, said in a press release. “These tools will help us protect patients and will serve as a model for other DMC (Detroit Medical Center) hospitals.” It’s the second Michigan Nurses Association affiliate to ratify in less than a month. The University of Michigan Professional Nurses Council, which represents more than 5,700 nurses, approved a new three-year contract on Oct. 11 with Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan health system. In a statement Thursday, the DMC said, “Our patients’ safety and the quality of our care has remained our top priority and will continue to be our focus.” “We believe the agreement is fair,… [Read full story]
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