Contact: Dave Bates, 347-865-8038, dave.bates@hailstonecommunications.com
Election is part of growing national trend of healthcare professionals forming unions to have a strong voice in improving patient care, staffing and retention
Madison, Wis. – In the largest private sector union election in recent Wisconsin history, almost 900 registered nurses at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital chose by 89% to form a union on June 11 to advocate for their patients and profession. The landslide election is part of a growing national trend of healthcare professionals – including nurses, doctors and others – organizing unions to have a strong voice in improving patient care, staffing and retention. Multiple clinical studies confirm that adequate nurse staffing levels are absolutely critical for patient safety and quality of care. Nurses say that as the medical professionals who actually provide direct patient care every day, they need to have a real seat at the decision-making table in a healthcare system that has become increasingly dominated by large corporations.
Nurses have joined the state’s largest healthcare union, SEIU Wisconsin. They say they are excited to be united with union nurses at Meriter Hospital and UW Health, and are looking forward to working collaboratively with SSM Health on solutions that raise standards for patient care and the nursing profession throughout the region. Nurses are calling on SSM to stop wasting precious resources on delay tactics and begin good faith contract negotiations as soon as possible.
“Our patient advocacy doesn’t end at the bedside, and that’s why we formed our union,” said Emily Berceau, a nurse in the St. Mary’s labor and delivery department. “Ever since high school, it has always been my goal to be a labor and delivery nurse. It’s such an incredible honor to be with families as they work to welcome new life into the world. As a nurse at St. Mary’s, I get to work with some truly exceptional nurses to make a difference in people’s lives every day. With our union, we now have a strong voice to negotiate a contract with the policies, staffing, and retention we need.”
There has not been a private sector union election of this size in Wisconsin since at least the turn of this century. Nurses started organizing their union over a year ago, more than 73% had signed union cards, and they requested their election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 1. Voting began at 6 a.m. on June 11 and ended at 8 p.m., and ballots were counted afterwards. The vote count was 511 in favor of unionizing and 63 against. SSM Health is now required by federal labor law to sit down and negotiate a union contract with the nurses. The nurses’ next step will be filling out surveys to determine their contract proposals and forming their negotiating committee.
In the weeks leading up to their election, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and Congressman Mark Pocan held solidarity events with St. Mary’s nurses, another 78 Wisconsin elected officials signed onto newspaper ads expressing their vigorous support, and hundreds of community members signed a support petition. Throughout their organizing efforts, St. Mary’s nurses were also inspired and supported by union nurses at Meriter and UW Health. Meriter nurses have been able to negotiate a robust union contract with a voice in staffing, a fair pay scale that rewards years of experience, fair scheduling and other supportive policies.
SSM has more than enough resources to negotiate a contract that addresses nurses’ concerns, with $12.6 billion in operating revenue, $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and $483 million in profits last year.
“Nursing feeds the soul, and we formed our union to make sure this profession we love is sustainable,” said Amber Brown, a nurse in the St. Mary’s cardiac intermediate care unit. “It means a lot to be there for our community in their most vulnerable moments. In order to be fully present with our patients, we need full staffing, resources, and support. With our union, nurses will be a part of the conversation and what we say will matter.”
While SSM Health had previously claimed with the Labor Board that “charge nurses” should be excluded from the election, nurses dispute this assertion, as they are confident that charge nurses at SSM are not supervisors under federal labor law. Charge nurses are members of the union at Meriter, UW Health and hundreds of other hospitals across the country. Nurses say that SSM must respect charge nurses’ freedom to have a union voice, and they should drop their unfounded objection.
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SEIU Wisconsin is the state’s largest and fastest-growing healthcare union, representing over 7,000 hospital, nursing home, home care and social service workers united to win quality care and good jobs for all.
