Contact: Dave Bates, 347-865-8038, dave.bates@hailstonecommunications.com
The request involves 380 outpatient nurses who have been inspired by the momentum of St. Mary’s nurses’ historic union election victory
Madison, Wisc. – This morning nurses at SSM Health Dean Medical Group in Dane County petitioned for a union election to have a strong voice for their patients and profession. The petition, which they filed with the National Labor Relations Board, involves 380 nurses at 10 outpatient clinic locations. Dean nurses have been inspired by the momentum of SSM St. Mary’s Hospital nurses’ landslide victory, the largest private sector union election in recent state history. Dean nurses say they want to unite with the movement of union nurses at St. Mary’s, Meriter and UW Health to raise patient care standards throughout the region.
“I’m helping build our union because I want to work in a clinic that has appropriate staffing levels, sufficient training, and support for nurses which will allow us to do our best work,” said Jennifer Loney, a nurse at the Dean South Madison Campus who has over 17 years of service with SSM. “I’m excited to finally have our voices be heard with the people who have been making decisions for us for so long. Who better to advocate for our patients than the nurses that directly care for them?”
Dean nurses work in outpatient clinics for cancer treatment, urgent care, family medicine, surgery, gastrointestinal care, and other essential services. They say they are struggling with serious problems around short staffing, burnout, unfair compensation and policies that do not support and retain staff, among other concerns. This latest election petition is part of a nationwide tidal wave of unionizing by nurses, doctors and other medical professionals – in response to the increasing corporatization of the healthcare industry – who want a seat at the table.
“I worked in a Dean clinic for five years, so I know firsthand how understaffed and undervalued those nurses are, and how hard they work for their patients,” said Dani Passon, who has worked in healthcare for almost three decades and is an operating room nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital. “No one realizes how tough it is to work as a medical professional in an outpatient clinic, especially with our sicker patient population. At my clinic, sometimes we would have around 150 calls pour in for just two or three nurses to handle, along with ordering lab tests and communicating with doctors. St. Mary’s nurses have been moving forward with determining our contract negotiation priorities to improve staffing and retention, and Dean nurses deserve the same voice so we can all raise patient care standards together.”
On July 22, the National Labor Relations Board regional office overruled the objections of SSM and certified the union election for almost 900 nurses at St. Mary’s hospital. Nurses voted by 89% to form their union in June. Both St. Mary’s and Dean Medical Group nurses are calling on SSM to respect their freedom to have a union, stop any further anti-union activity, and work collaboratively with them to address urgent issues. Nurses say they want to build a relationship with SSM based on mutual respect, open communication and cooperation toward shared goals.
Multiple clinical studies confirm that adequate nurse staffing levels are absolutely critical for patient safety and quality of care. But healthcare corporations too often prioritize expansion, branding and executive compensation over the needs of patients, nurses say.
“The administration says ‘their door is open,’ but when we approach them to advocate for our patients and ourselves, they just say ‘we hear you’ and nothing happens,” said Krissy Butor, a nurse in outpatient surgery who formerly worked in St. Mary’s for 20 years. “The time has come for us to form our union so our voices are actually heard and we can create real change. The main areas we need to improve are staffing, fair compensation that retains experienced nurses, and better training of our newer nurses. Forming our union has given me some of the most satisfaction in my nursing career, because we all know we’re in this together. Nurses across Dean, St. Mary’s, Meriter and UW Health are united to make sure our healthcare system prioritizes the needs of patients.”
Unfortunately, instead of engaging with nurses to solve problems, SSM has been spending resources on a corporate law firm to file objections to St. Mary’s nurses’ election with the National Labor Relations Board, and running an ongoing pressure campaign inside both the hospital and clinics. SSM’s tactics have included threatening nurses with disciplinary action for union activity, spreading misleading propaganda, and destroying and confiscating their union materials. These scare tactics waste resources, distract from patient care and cause further anxiety for the already-overburdened nursing workforce. Nurses and community members say that the conduct of SSM, which is based in St. Louis, violates local Madison and Wisconsin values, as well as Catholic social teaching.
While St. Mary’s nurses have been struggling, SSM had $12.6 billion in operating revenue, $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and $483 million in profits last year, and SSM’s CEO had $7.8 million in compensation in 2024. Nurses say SSM has both the resources and the moral responsibility to address their concerns and ensure St. Mary’s and Dean clinics are the healthcare providers and employers of choice.
Throughout their efforts, St. Mary’s and Dean nurses have been strongly supported by union nurses at UW Health and Meriter. Meriter nurses have been able to negotiate a strong union contract with a voice in staffing, a pay scale that rewards years of experience, fair scheduling, better paid time off, and other supportive policies. Now, both St. Mary’s and Dean nurses are looking forward to continuing to build their movement of healthcare professionals, and are planning a series of public actions in coming weeks to advocate for their patients and community.
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