Detroit Medical Center said it will let a "select number" of its union security officers keep their jobs and offer the rest employment as contractors, TV station Fox 2 reports.
The station reported that the medical center will integrate guards from private security contractor G4S into its current unionized security force. G4S is the current vendor for the medical center's for-profit parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare.
"G4S will augment and support the DMC's current police authority with armed and unarmed officers throughout our facilities. The police authority will remain in place with a select number of current officers. All other members of the police authority will have opportunity to seek employment with G4S," hospital officials told Becker's Hospital Review.
It was unclear how many current DMC officers will be affected by the changes. The medical center said the changes will not affect the number of security officers at DMC.
Fred Timpner, executive director of the Michigan Association of Police, which represents 90 of the medical center's approximately 150 security officers, told Fox 2 the union views the security changes as "retaliation on the fact that they [security officers] organized, retaliation on the fact that they negotiated a collective bargaining agreement."
More articles on leadership and management:
Women 'severely underrepresented' on Philly hospital boards, study finds
New York boosts hospital reimbursement by $140M after major donation to Democrats
Kansas microhospital transition to affect 145 employees