On Thursday November

Hospital Workers Out On Strike song by Rebel Voices

14, registered nurses represented by Teamsters Local 406 struck for improved wages, working hours and conditions, and benefits, particularly a better pension plan, health insurance with less out-of-pocket expense, lower nurse-to-patient ratios, improved grievance procedures, and hospital unfair labor practices.

NLRB to issue complaint againt NMH.

Teamster letter to Hospital

Honor roll: Nurses on strike

Call the hospital's Board members and encourage them to deal fairly with their RNs.

Song: Time For A Change

Teamsters Online: TC Record-Eagle: "Petoskey Nurses on Strike"

TC Record-Eagle: "Striking nurses put off picket to assist injured motorist"

PNR: "Readers mostly backing nurses"

Hospital pays Colorado company U.S. Nursing Corp big bucks for travelling strikebreakers.

November 19, 2002

Members, Northern Michigan Regional Health System Board of Directors, Northern Michigan Hospital Foundation Board of Directors

On the 13th of November 2002, our family received a solicitation from the Northern Michigan Hospital Foundation and the Northern Michigan Regional Health System (NMH) asking us to pledge money toward the remaining $700,000 of a $37.5 million campaign.

On the 14th of November 2002, the Registered Nurses began their strike action asking for a pledge from Northern Michigan Hospitals to bargain in good faith.

Our community has always responded with the dollars and pledges needed to see these important capital projects through.

It is only appropriate that NMH reciprocate with a signed contract with the RN’s bargaining unit.

Now !!

The argument will be made that the Foundation is raising money for capital improvements and is therefore disconnected from the management / staff relationship that exists within the hospital. This is far from true.

If one looks on the margin of this solicitation, a listing of the board members of both NMH and the NMH Foundation will be found. There are several common members to the boards and therefore one board does know the activities of the other. The Foundation Board that is asking for dollars and pledges to further the important work of the hospital through additions to the facilities does know that the NMH board stands behind the techniques used by hospital management to slow down and stall the attempts made this year by the team of nurses that was elected by their peers to bring this bargaining unit to life.

I have served on enough boards of directors to know that management needs the support of its board of directors in order to function effectively. Unfortunately, this board is supporting its managers at the expense of the greater Petoskey community in general and specifically at the expense of hundreds of nurses and their families.

Many, if not all, of the members of these two boards are involved in local business and presently benefit from the dollars spent in the community by the striking nurses and their families. Every $1000 dollar paycheck is an integral part of our local commerce. It is hard to accept or understand how this reality can be brushed aside by community members who have been placed in these board positions at least in part because of their concern for the well being of the entire community.

Our children go to school together and play together and have grown up together. Let’s get it together.

In a discussion this week with one of the above-mentioned board members, I mentioned that it was quite expensive for NMH to pay strike nurses and possibly travel nurses if the strike lingers. This board member stated that, yes, it was expensive, but that it would not last forever, because before long more nurses would move to town and take their places.

If this attitude prevails within the two above-mentioned boards, then it is not so hard to understand how the management / staff relationship has reached this low point. People do not like to be treated as if they are more easily replaced than respected. Being the eternal optimist, I cannot believe that all 34 board members feel this way. There has got to be a crack in the armor somewhere among them.

NMH has an opportunity to be a true community leader and healer in this situation. The Boards of Directors are in charge here and they need to steer the ship back into calm waters.

Dale S. Scott, 526-7220

cc: Petoskey News-Review, Traverse City Record Eagle, Northern Express

Send comments about this site to the websteward.

Thanks to Stele Ely for the lovely graphic used in the background of this site.